Looking
Around
Observe closely and you’ll see (left) an abandoned bird-
nest fashioned principally of ply cord and other waste from
(it can be assumed) Firestone, Gastonia. The nest is in a
quince bush beside the plant’s front parking lot. A rust-
encrusted cotton-bale tie (center) found on site of the old
warehouse as it was torn down in September to make way
for a new 175,000-square-foot facility. The old bale tie is
reminiscent of a bygone time when cotton was the only fiber
processed here. They’re old insulators (right) that hitched
onto heavy-duty power lines years ago. Out-of-use insulators
are on the south wall above roof of Boiler Room.
Gastonia
North Carolina
OCTOBER 1977
Textiles Company
BenncttsyiJle Boivling Green
South Carolina Kentucky
SA T DA TES
SCHOLARSHIP
PROGRAM
Firestone Texliles Company employees' sons and daugh
ters applying for the Firestone Company 1978 College
Scholarships have three dates on which to take the Schol
arship Aptitude Test (SAT):
Nov. 5 and Dec. 3, 1977; and Jan. 28, 1978.
Students must take SAT to meet requirements of apply
ing for a Firestone Scholarship. And they must register to
take the lest at least six weeks before the testing date.
Also, students must designate on the registration form the
Firestone Scholarship code (0080) for scores to be sent
automatically to the Scholarship Committee in Akron.
SAT is administered at locations throughout the U.S. by
Educational Testing Center. Students may get registration
forms for testing and additional information from their
high school counselors.
March 1 is deadline for the 1978 scholarship applications.
PRESIDENT
ADDRESSED
Enterprise Fair
Mario UiFederico, president of The Firestone Tire &
Rubber Company, was among top business leaders who ad
dressed the second annual Free Enterprise Fair at Western
Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Sept. 22-23. He was
sponsored by Bowling Green College of Business and Public
Affairs.
Some 200 businesses and in
dustries participated in the Fair
which had 69 display booths in
Diddle Arena. Around 10,000
persons viewed the exhibits.
PURPOSE of the Fair is “to
get students, educators and the
public to realize that our whole
economy, form of government
and way of life is based on free
enterprise ... to help people
understand how it works and
learn how to make it keep on
working if the United States is
to remain leader in the Free
World.”
The Fair is also an effort to
bring business leaders and edu
cators together to help one an-
Bumperese in Firestone park
ing lot, Gastonia: LIFE, LIBER
TY, and COUNTRY MUSIC.
And wall plaque in a cafe: A
SHUT MOUTH NEVER LOST
AN ARGUMENT.
other to overcome misconcep
tions about what free enterprise
is.
Firestone Textiles Bowling
Green plant manager Tom Yel-
ton is one of the 18 members of
the Fair steering committee.
Energy Cut
20% of Goal
• Reduction of energy us
age in Firestone’s textiles
grouping is at 20 per cent of
its goal of 23 per cent. The
rate, established in midsum
mer, was still holding at the
end of September.
Brian Schroeder, division en
ergy coordinator, expects an im
provement over the 20 per cent
at the rate of 1 per cent a year
to 1980, the close of the current
energy-saving program.
‘Something
Challenging’
“Since almost as far back
as I can remember, I’ve
wanted to work at Fire
stone.” Anita Costner Friday
of Dallas, N.C., was talking
of how she eventually made
it to Firestone—employed by
Security Forces, Inc., of
Charlotte. She began work
ing first shift on the Dalton
Street gate in late summer.
A relative had told her of the
Security job opening. She
“thought it’d be something chal
lenging.” Anita came to this job
after work experience in one
cafeteria and four textile plants
in the Gastonia area. Before all
that, she’d attended Ashley Jun
ior High School.
Away from the job, Anita en
joys fishing for carp on local
lakes; and target-shooting with
pistol and .22 rifle usually at a
place near Dallas. Another of
her interests: Travel. She has
made some coast-to-coast trips,
but nowadays her going is most
ly between the Carolinas moun
tains and beaches.
Anita is the first woman ever
to work as a security guard at
Firestone, Gastonia. Plant Se
curity Forces Lt. George Toney
says she learned her work duties
and procedures “correctly and
in record time.”
The textiles division’s savings
effort is part of a Firestone cor
porate worldwide Energy Con
servation program which began
in 1975.
Included in the textiles divi
sion facilities group are Fire
stone Textiles Company unit at
Gastonia, N.C.; Bennettsville,
S.C.; Bowling Green, Ky.;
Woodstock, Canada (3 plants),
and fabric-treating of the Mem
phis, Tenn., tire plant.
Anita
Costner
Friday
On Beyond 4,000fi00
• This is a real fine achievement: On Sept. 11, people of
the Gastonia Firestone plant passed the 4,000,000-hours mark
of operating without a lost-time injury.
We congratulate each of you. It takes everyone thinking
about and working at safety to compile such a good record.
Numbers are only an indicator of what we do in safety. The
real regard is that no one is out from work suffering from
an injury that could have occurred.
As we move forward and continue to work safely, we will
be gaining more injury-free hours. When we reach the
5,000,000-hours mark, we will have a recognition day for
everyone
In our safest period over the years, you and others before
you at this plant reached 7,765,258 injury-free hours of ope
ration in July 1967, the count beginning in August 1964.
Let’s beat that record! Think about it. Talk about it. SELL
SAFETY.
R.L. King P.R. Williams
Division Factory Manager Gastonia Factory Manager