WASHINGTON (March 13, 2014) — The Rubber Manufacturers Association has singled out five U.S. tire makers — Bridgestone Americas Inc., Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., Goodyear, Michelin North America Inc. and Pirelli Tire L.L.C. — for improvements in worker health and safety.
The RMA honored the five recently with Safety and Health Improvement Program (SHIP) Awards at the association's annual meeting in Washington.
The RMA gave Excellence Awards to Bridgestone facilities in Long Beach, Calif., and Oxford, N.C.; Michelin plants in Starr and Starr-Anderson, S.C.; and Pirelli's plant in Rome, Ga.
Improvement Awards went to Bridgestone plants in Wilson, N.C., and Abilene, Texas; Cooper facilities in Tupelo, Miss., and Clarksdale, Tenn.; Michelin plants in Sandy Springs and Spartanburg, S.C., Fort Wayne, Ind., and Tuscaloosa, Ala.; and Goodyear plants in Buffalo, N.Y., Gadsden, Ala., and Lawton, Okla.
Created in 1981, the SHIP Awards honor RMA member companies that achieve significant enhancements in worker health and safety at their facilities.
Excellence Awards go to tire makers that, according to the association, achieve a Days Away Restricted Transfer (DART) rate at their facilities that is 75-percent better than the average achieved by plants that submitted data to the RMA.
Improvement Awards go to plants that achieve a DART rate that is both 10 percent better than the previous year and the same as or better than the average RMA incidence rate.
Forty-two RMA member facilities supplied data for the annual survey to determine the extent of workplace safety improvements, the RMA said. The data supplied to RMA are identical to information provided to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, which publishes annual injury and illness information on all industries.
Bridgestone Americas President and CEO Gary Garfield,Cooper Tire North America Tire President Chris Ostrander, Michelin North America Chairman and President Pete Selleck, Goodyear North American Tire President Steve McClellan, and Pirelli North America Chairman and CEO Paulo Ferrari accepted the awards for their respective companies.
To view photos taken at the RMA's awards presentation, go to RMA's site.
