RMA issues plant safety awards to 5 tyre makers

ERJ staff report (TB)

Washington DC - The US-based Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA) honored five tyre manufacturers for their improvements in tyre factory worker health and safety during the association's annual meeting April 17.

RMA's Safety and Health Improvement Program (SHIP), created in 1981, recognises member companies that achieve significant enhancements in worker health and safety with awards.

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 percent better than the average achieved by plants that provide data to RMA.

The “Improvement” award is for plants that achieve an incidence rate that is both 10 percent better than its rate in the previous year and the same or better than the RMA average incidence rate.

The four Excellence SHIP awards for 2012 were presented to:

• Bridgestone Americas Inc.'s Aiken County, South Carolina, plant;
• Michelin North America Inc.'s Spartanburg and Starr, South Carolina, plants; and
• Pirelli Tire LLC's Rome, Georgia, plant.

Ten Improvement awards were presented to:

• Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.'s plants in Tupelo and Clarksdale, Mississipi;
• Michelin's facilities in Greenville and Sandy Springs, South Carolina; Dothan, Alabama; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Covington, Georgia; and
• Goodyear's plants in Topeka, Kansas; Lawton, Oklahoma; and Social Circle, Georgia.

Forty-one RMA member facilities supplied data for the annual survey to determine the extent of workplace safety improvements. The data is identical to information provided to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, which publishes injury and illness information on all industries.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)