Textiles Company
MAY • 1976
Gastonia Bennettsville Boivling Green
North Carolina South Carolina Kentucky
June - August
Coming up: Another sea
son of recreation for West
Gastonia youngsters i n
Firestone Playground. The
facility in front of the tex
tile plant has its wading
pool as main aiiraciion for
children who would "while
away the lazy days of
Summer."
The company-owned
playground each Summer
is made available for op
eration as a part of the
City of Gastonia Recrea
tion Department's system
of parks and playgrounds.
Children at play are su
pervised by personnel em
ployed by City Recreation.
In addition to the wad
ing pool, the playground
has swings, seesaws and
horseshoe pits. A special
feature in recent years has
been instruction in arts
and crafts. Competition in
various areas of play and
crafts participation chooses
winners at season's end.
This, a part of the overall
City Recreation program,
also schedules nature hikes
and outings to points of in
terest around Gastonia.
☆
☆ ☆
29
Consecutive
Years Safety
• For 29 consecutive years, Firestone at Gastonia
has been recognized by the Gaston County Chamber of
Commerce and the North Carolina Department of La
bor for noteworthy achievement in industrial safety.
Latest of the awards was recognizes the Gastonia plant’s
Slack Promoted
Terry J. Slack recently was
appointed supervisor of training
and employee relations, Bowling
Green plant. Slack, a graduate
of Western Kentucky University,
has been with Firestone’s BG
plant since 1974.
He was employee interviewer
and counselor in the Industrial
Relations department before his
promotion to supervisor of train
ing and employee relations. He
and his wife Marilyn live in
Bowling Green.
NO DAMAGE
Earl Taylor Jr., benchman,
and his f ellow Shop worker
Glenn Boyce were transferring
a heavy steel pipe onto a hand-
truck one day last month. The
pipe "got away" from them and
one end came whacking down
across Earl's left foot. Fortun
ately, it struck the steel-sup
ported toecap of his shoe. To
comply with established stand
ards, the steel cap in a safely
shoe (weighing only about two
ounces) must be capable of sup
porting a static load of 2,500
pounds.
So, no damage to Earl's foot—
just heavy vibrations. Earl al
ways wears his safety shoes at
work, but still "hates to think
what it would've been like with
out them."
presented in April to Bill
Passmore, plant safety man
ager “on behalf of all the
Firestone people.” Firestone
Textiles Company was
among the 111 Gaston Coun
ty companies receiving
awards.
Firestone and one other firm
were specially recognized—Fire
stone for being one of only five
firms in the State entitled to the
award over the past 29 years.
The other firm. Threads, Inc.,
was honored for one million
safe-operation employee hours.
Firestone's citation this year
Company President
‘Most Outstanding’
Richard A. Riley, president
and chief executive officer of
the Firestone company recently
was named “most outstanding
chief executive of the year in
the rubber and tire industry” in
Financial World’s annual com
petition to honor America’s top
executives.
Selection was made by a pan
el of “48 leading security ana-
lyists” said the magazine.
Mr. Riley was cited for con
tributions to his “company,, in
dustry, business in general and
the community at large.”
• Earl's foot rests on the 400-
pound pipe that fell but did no
harm.
19V5 record of operating 50 per
cent, or better, below the injury-
frequency rate in the entire
North Carolina textile industry.
The plant’s rate last year was
77.5 pe rcent below the State’s
average in textiles.
Other ways a firm is eligible
for the NC Department of Labor
award: To have no loss of time
resulting from on-job injuries,
and for a company to best its
own established safety record.
Through the years. Firestone
has qualified in all three ways.
First of the long series of De
partment of Labor awards was
made to Firestone in 1947 in
Raleigh. That was a year before
the awards meetings were made
an annual event in Gastonia.
At Plant •
Safety Board Linda Weaver (left) and Betty Hayes, with
latest NC Department of Labor Award plaque. Linda and Betty are
loom knotters in TC Weaving.
Awards have been in the form
of certificates, plaques, and in
scribed bars added to plaques
representing five-year periods.
TWO MERIT WINNERS
FROM TEXTILES DIVISION
• Forty-nine outstanding
high school students are
winners of 1976 college
scholarships with a potential
value of nearly $550,000 in
The Firestone Tire & Rubber
Company’s Scholarship
Awards Program.
The winners, all sons and
daughters of Firestone employ
ees, were announced by Ray-
m 0 n d C. Firestone, company
chairman, in late April.
Grants the students receive
are worth up to $11,200 each to
ward tuition, fees, required text
books and room and board ex
pense during four years of col
lege.
SCHOLARSHIP winners may
attend any accredited college or
university in the United States
and pursue any desired course
leading to a degree.
In addition to the 49 Scholar
ship recipients, a Certificate of
Merit and 10 shares of Firestone
common stock were awarded to
1976 College Scholarships
each of 101 applicants in recog
nition of their outstanding high
school records.
Teresa Jones Renee Setzer
One of the Merit winners is
from a Firestone Textiles Com
pany family: Greta Renee Setz
er, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Alonzo Setzer of Bessemer City,
N.C. She is a senior at Bessemer
City High School. Her father is
a shop mechanic at the Gastonia
Firestone plant.
Also, Teresa D. Jones of Bowl
ing Green, Ky., won a Certifi
cate of Merit and Firestone
stock. Teresa, the daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Guy Jones, is a
senior at Warren East High
School. Her father is an in
spector in Quality Control,
Bowling Green Plant.
The 150 Scholarship and Cer
tificate of Merit winners for
1976 live in 28 states and were
selected from 423 applicants. Of
Scholarship winners, 33 are girls
and 16 are boys. The 101 Merit
winners include 66 girls and 35
boys.
In the 24 years Firestone has
made awards in this program,
786 college scholarships have
been awarded.
Purpose of the program is to
give financial assistance to wor
thy sons and daughters of Fire
stone employees who seek col
lege educations.
The scholarship program for
employees’ children is but one
(more on page 4)
Discounts & Refund Benefits through stores
• • Employees, retired persons, widows of retirees and
the surviving spouse of any employee who was eligible for
early retirement at the time of his or her death.
They're all eligible for dis
counts and refund benefits when
buying tires, auto services and
home & auto supplies from Fire
stone.
Every year the people who
are eligible save hundreds of
thousands o f dollars through
purchases and at the same time
add to their own job security
through doing business with the
company.
The substantial discounts and
refunds are an important part of
each employee’s “benefits pack
age.”
DISCOUNTS on first-class
passenger tires, based on store
suggested retail price, range
from 10 to 25 percent depending
on tire type. On blemished tires
the discount is 20 percent off
regular employee price for new
tires.
Current employee discount on
light truck and recreational ve
hicle tires is the exchange price
less 10 percent. Substantial price
reductions are also offered for
retread tires.
When new tires are offered to
the public as part of a major
passenger tire promotion, em
ployees and retirees can buy the
tires (except Champion) at 10
percent below the advertised
price or at the normal employee
price, whichever is lower.
TO CHANGE over from new
tires (if mold marks are stiU
visible) to Firestone tires of the
same type and quality, the em
ployee or retiree pays $1 per
tire, including balancing.
(more on page 2)