SEPTEMBER
1976
Bennettsville
South Carolina
Gastonia
North Carolina
Bowling Green • Kentucky
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Textiles Company
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PLANT CAMPAIGN-Oa 4-21
Gaston UW: $763,000
“As high a participation and as many Fair-Share con
tributors as we can get” is aim of the Firestone United Way-
in-plant campaign in October. The Gaston County UW pro-
gTam, Sept. 28-Oct. 29, is reaching for $763,000 to be divided
among 34 organizations ranging from the American Cancer
Society to the YMCA.
Fall Festival
• The 13th annual Festival in
the Park (Freedom Park in
Charlotte) is September 21-26.
This Firestone News photo is
from last year. The festival this
month is among lots and lots of
September-October "things spe
cial" in the Carolinas and Ken
tucky that make for Fun & Ad
venture (more on page 4).
An Enterprise Fair At WKU
Firestone Textiles C o m -
pany Bowling Green (Ky.)
plant is among some 75 busi
ness and industrial firms par
ticipating in a Free Enter
prise Fair, Sept. 17-18 at
Western Kentucky Univer
sity.
The Fair, focusing on the im
pact of economics in the com
munity, attempts to acquaint
high school and college students
and the general public with the
essence and spirit of the Ameri
can Free Enterprise Way.
At the WKU Paul L. Garrett
Conference Center, participating
business and industrial firms
during the two-day fair display
product information, public re
lations materials, information on
productivity, gross national
product, and our individual en
terprise system and how it
works.
EXHIBITS also show certain
standard information about the
participating firms—number of
employees, payroll, taxes paid to
local, state and federal govern
ment, and related facts.
Sponsors of the Fair are the
College of Business and Com
munity Affairs of WKU, the
Bowling Green-Warren County
Chamber of Commerce, South
ern Kentucky Association of Life
Underwriters and the Center for
Economic Education.
Coordinating Firestone’s par
ticipation in the Fair are Fred
DeHoag, working supervisor—
data processing; and Terry J.
Slack, supervisor of training and
employee relations.
The lead photo on page one
of the July 8 NON-SKID fea
tured a ply-twisting operation
at the Gastonia Firestone plant.
The picture in the company’s
corporate publication distribut
ed nationally, was titled “On
The Beam” and showed section
supervisor Robert Bryson of TC
Twisting.
He was checking a plying op-
Last year the county funding
program raised $712,000 to op
erate 32 people-helping services.
And in that effort. Firestone
people contributed $41,098
which was one of the major
gifts in the county's funding ef
fort.
For the Firestone in-plant
United Way drive, chairmen
this year are Thomas A. Grant,
☆ ☆ ☆
1976 BG UGF
Needs $190,000
United Givers Fund of
Bowling Green and Warren
County (Ky.) 1976 money-
raising campaign began af
ter the Labor Day weekend.
It is usually completed by
the middle of October.
Vernon Holder, president
elect of UGF for 1977 and this
year’s campaign chairman, said:
. . This year we have an
even-bigger job before us.” He
eration from behind the hun
dreds of polyester filaments be
ing wound off the beam and
twisted onto bobbins.
manager of Industrial Engineer
ing; and Ralph L. Reep, shift
foreman in TC Weaving. And
many other volunteers will help
in the solicitation.
Money pledged will be paid
through payroll deduction.
Alvin V. Riley, Firestone Tex
tiles Company manager of per
sonnel, is among volunteer
workers on the county level of
the United Way program.
Albert V. Myers III, a Gas
tonia textile executive, is this
year’s campaign chairman for
Gaston United Way.
pointed out that all businesses,
industry, professionals and wage
earners will have opportunity
to help make up last year’s def
icit and raise enough funds for
UGF operations in coming
months of 1977.
UGF campaign goal this year
is $190,000 to operate the health,
welfare and character-building
agencies of Bowling Green and
Warren County.
The money is being raised to
support 12 health, welfare and
character-building services next
(More on page 4)
Variety In 333 Suggestions
From May through August, the suggestion board at
Gastonia considered 333 ideas and approved 71 of them. For
these, the company paid employees $1,350 in awards—with
most of them being the minimum $15.
Several of the not-approved
suggestions rated further study
for possible adoption.
APPROVED suggestions were
in award payments from the
minimum (for example) Bobbie
Baldwin’s idea for relocating a
telephone cord in the Industrial
Relations office where she is sec
retary, to $300 for Jesse Lee
Parks Jr.’s improved method of
loading fabric for rail shipment.
Parks, lead vehicle mechanic.
Shop, got approval of his origi
nal suggestion a year ago and it
has been in use since then. His
loading method provides for a
set of squeeze clamps on lift
trucks. They go imdemeath each
end of fabric rolls at floor level
and transport them to length
wise loading in railroad cars.
Original payment was $300.
Because the Bowling Green
plant adopted his loading meth
od this summer, Parks was
awarded an additional $300 in
June.
Some examples which show
the variety of ideas submitted
during the past four months:
Safety features added to air-
operated door, yellow traffic
lines painted on parking lot, con-
fidencers installed on telephones
in high-noise areas, handles
added on windows for easier
(More on page 3)
Painting High
Frames and sashes of the
approximately 882 windows
of the five-floor Gastonia
Firestone plant were painted
during Summer by R. B.
Elam contractors. The crew
worked from May into Au
gust at scraping, caulking
and painting, from ground to
top and counter-clockwise
around the mill. Downspouts
and gutters got their paint,
too.
The windows are painted
around every eight years, ac
cording to William Lind
quist, senior staff engineer.
Figuring out spaces for quite
a few fans and vents in the
window frames, there are at
least 36,000 panes—with all
those in-between sashes to
be painted.
The big window project
done, workmen moved inside
to the west end of second
floor, painting walls and ceil
ings in late August. Earlier,
another contractor had
painted the west end of fifth
floor.