Seventy-eight tire and rubber manufacturing facilities recently were recognized for improvements in worker health and safety by the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA).
RMA's Safety and Health Improvement Program (SHIP), created in 1981, recognizes member companies that achieve "significant enhancements in worker health and safety" with awards. The SHIP awards encourage and reward a company's demonstrated commitment to worker health and safety.
"This industry takes pride in its efforts to promote worker safety," says Don Shea, RMA CEO and president. "The SHIP award is recognition of companies' superior achievement to protect their workers."
Two categories of awards are presented to companies that demonstrate workplace safety improvements, which are measured by the incidence rate for lost workday cases.
The "Excellence" category is for facilities that achieve an incidence rate that is 75% better than the average achieved by plants that provided data to RMA. The "Improvement" award is for plants that achieve an incidence rate that is both 10% better than its rate in the previous year and the same or better than the RMA average incidence rate.
One hundred and eighty four plants from 37 RMA member companies supplied data for the annual survey to determine the extent of workplace safety improvements. The data supplied to RMA is identical to information provided to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, which publishes injury and illness information on all industries.
For 2004, two tire manufacturing plants received Excellence Awards: Pirelli Tire North America Inc.'s Rome, Ga., plant, and Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire LLC's Graniteville, S.C., facility. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s Hannibal, Mo., rubber production plant also received an Excellence Award.
The following tire manufacturers received Improvement Awards for the tire or rubber manufacturing facilities listed:
Bridgestone Firestone: Wilson, N.C.; Morrison, Tenn.
Continental Tire North America Inc.: Charlotte, N.C.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.: Athens, Ga.; Clarksdale, Miss.
Michelin North America Inc.: Sandy Springs and Spartanburg, S.C.; Midland City, Ala.
Goodyear: Norfolk, Neb.; Spring Hope, N.C.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Topeka, Kan.; Lawton, Okla.
Rubber manufacturing facilities from Federal-Mogul Corp. (two Excellence, two Improvement) and Tenneco Automotive (Improvement) also received awards.
