DECEMBER ISSUE SEW IT SEAMS Page Nine 9 Departments Get Perfect Safety Grades Nine departments last month made perfect housekeeping grades during the safety committee’s in spection and three departments failed to keep their banners, mak ing grades below 90. The offices at the White division made an inspection grade of 89 be cause boxes and chairs were found in the aisle in the supply room and boxes were stacked unevenly on lop of files. Also, a Coke bottle had been left on a chair in the rest room. Both pants I and pants II failed to get a banner this time. Pants II made a grade of 89 and pants I a grade of 86. Both these depart ments had thread and empty thread cones on the floor and, in addition, pants I had an excessive amount of paper and scraps on the sewing room floor. Departments receiving grades of 100 were overall and boxer, dun garee I, dungaree II, ladies’ dun garee, maintenance, cutting, ship ping, engineering, sales, and print ing. The shirt department received a grade of 98, the finishing depart ment made 97, and the Hudson office got a grade of 96. The safety meeting was the last one for the present committee and Ossie Wright thanked the group for their fine work during the past few months. Visitors at the meet ing were Esther Hughes, super visor in the pants department; Lu- die Mae Ingram, supervisor in dun garee I; Hattie Banner and Leola ?> A BEAUTY — She’s Geraldine Hodge, daughter of Ruby Hodge at the Independence, Va., division and sister to Junior Hodge of that plant. II KETIUING SAFETY COMMITTEE — The safety committee that has just completed four months of service is composed of: front row, left to right, Alma Peele, shirt department; Joyce Chapman, White office; Lucy Hawkins, Hudson office; Kunelda Rich, dungaree; Evelyn Jones, overall and boxer; and Sarah Baldwin, pants. Back row, Geneva Cook, pants; Hassie Stanford, dungaree; and W. O. Benfield, maintenance. Ellen Hardy, representing ladies’ dungaree, was not present when the picture was taken. Newell, Sherrod supervisors; and J. W. Parker, Sherrod super- ! intendent. Ossie reported briefly on acci dents during November, saying there w'ere no lost time ones and that accidents in general decreased from 17 in October to nine last month.. Four of the accidents re sulted in treatment by physicians, she said. W. R. Fulton, safety engineer for Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., spoke to the committee on the “Common Sense of Safety.” He pointed out that an accident can be anything that stops production. To the worker they result in the loss of the difference between his com pensation and his wages, a reduced standard of living, suffering, lost opportunity, and perhaps perma nent handicaps. The supei'visors suffer by decreased production, the loss of a skilled worker, time re quired to train a replacement, dis gruntled employees, and time lost investigating and reporting the ac cident. The company must pay in creased insurance rates, receives a poor name in the labor market, loses customer good will, produces poorer quality products, and loses by machine damage or idleness. Accidental fatalities in the United States average 95,000 and disabling injuries total 9,800,000. Since 1930 the severity of acci dents has been cut almost in half but the cost of accidents has con tinued to rise. He said that costs to the company are like an ice berg, with three-fourths of them being hidden as most of the ice- CUTTING ROOM— (Continued from Page Eight) in August of 1954 and is a spread er. His wife’s name is Ramona Ann and they live at 626 Willowbrook St. They also, have no children. Tommy Kent started working with the company in May of 1952. He is single and lives with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. T. A. Kemp, at 309 Oak View Rd. He is a culter and his mother and a sister ■work in the sewing room at Sher rod. At the Independence plant the spreading and cutting work is done by James Boyer and J. L. Richard son. Both spend their spare time farming. Boyer came with the company in April of 1952 and is married to the former Elizabeth Anders. They have two children, Larry, nine years old, and Shirley, age five. They live on a farm near In dependence. J. L. is a native of Sparta, N. C. He came with the company in September of 1953 and previous ly was employed by the Virginia State Highw'ay Department. He is single and lives with his sister on a farm near Independence. berg is hidden under water. Visible costs are those paid by the insurance company while hidden costs are those paid by the company. An accident costing $400 for medical treatment and compen sation will actually cost $1,600 when the hidden costs are added, he said. Hudson Workers To Get Tags For Cars Workers at the Hudson plants who use the company’s parking lot for their automobiles in Jan uary are to be given small alumi num tags displaying their parking space number. These are to be placed on the rear license plate and any automobiles not display ing these tags will not be allowed to park in the lot. The aluminum tag is being pro vided so w'orkers can put them on their new license plates in Jan uary. It is hoped that they will work out better than windshield stickers have in the past. The stickers often washed off and were destroyed. The parking situation at the Hud son plant has been a “headache” for some time and it is hoped that the new tags will help straighten things out. No parallel parking is to be allowed in the rear of the lot since it keeps per sons with regular parking spaces from using them. Parallel parkers have been making it impossible for some people to get to or out from their spaces and all employees are asked to co-operate in the matter. A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little cour age. Every day sends to their gi'aves obscure men whose timidity prevented them fi'om making a first effort. “A pedestrian is a man whose wife got to the garage first.”