The Rubber Manufacturers’ Safety and Health Improvement Program (SHIP), created in 1981, recognizes member companies that achieve significant enhancements in worker health and safety with awards. This year, 55 tire and rubber manufacturing facilities are being recognized as part of the program.
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.
Supplying data for the annual survey were 113 thirteen plants from 28 RMA member companies. 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.
The winners by plant category and award type are listed below.
Tire Sector – Excellence Awards: Bridgestone Americas Manufacturing Group, Aiken County, S.C.; Bridgestone Bandag Tire Solutions, Griffin, Ga., Long Beach, Calif., and Oxford, N.C.; Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Stockbridge, Ga.; Michelin North America, Dothan, Ala.
Tire Sector – Improvement Awards: Bridgestone Americas Manufacturing Group, Bloomington, Ill., Des Moines, Iowa, and LaVergne, Tenn.; Bridgestone Americas Tube Business, Russellville, Ark.; Continental Tire North America, Mt. Vernon, Ill.; Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., Findlay, Ohio; Michelin North America, Covington, Ga., Sandy Springs, Starr and Spartanburg, S.C.; Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Fayetteville, N.C., Gadsden, Ala., Kingman, Az., and Social Circle, Ga.
Internal Supplier Sector – Excellence Awards: Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., Findlay, Ohio; Gates Corp., Versailles, Mo., and Rockford, Ill.
Supplier Sector – Excellence Awards: Rubber City Machinery Corp., Akron, Ohio;
Portage Precision Polymers, Ravenna, Ohio; Trelleborg YSH, Inc., Morganfield, Ky.; Zeon Chemicals L.P., Hattiesburg, Miss., Pasadena, Texas, and Louisville, Ky.
Engineered Products Group Sector – Excellence Awards: Blair Rubber Co., Seville, Ohio; Firestone Industrial Products, Williamsburg, Ky.; Gates Corp., Chambersburg, Pa., Charleston, Mo., Galesburg, Ill., Glade Spring, Va., and
Iola, Kan.; HBD Industries, Inc., Marion, Ohio, and Oneida, Tenn.; Trelleborg YSH, Inc., Carmi, Ill., and South Haven, Mich.; T & M Rubber, Inc., Goshen, Ind.,
Veyance Technologies, Inc., Fairlawn, Ohio, Hannibal, Mo., Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Norfolk, Neb., and Spring Hope, N.C.
Engineered Products Group Sector – Improvement Awards: Bridgestone APM Co., Findlay, Ohio; Federal-Mogul Corp., Wipers US, Michigan City, Ind.; Flexan Corp., Chicago, Ill.; HBD Industries, Inc. Bellefontaine, Ohio; Gates Corp., Columbia, Mo., and Ashe County, N.C.; Veyance Technologies, Inc., Porterdale, Ga., and St. Marys, Ohio.
