Bridgestone Americas (Bridgestone) recently received four awards from the Rubber Manufacturer’s Association’s (RMA) Safety and Health Improvement Program (SHIP) for safety performance of plants operated by Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (BATO). The awards were presented for demonstrating workplace safety improvements measured by lost workday incidence rates. Bridgestone captured two Excellence Awards and two Improvement Awards at RMA’s annual meeting.
“The health and safety of all Bridgestone teammates is imperative to our company,” says Bob Walker, Vice President for Safety and Hygiene at Bridgestone Americas. “We are honored to be recognized by the Rubber Manufacturer’s Association for our continued focus on ensuring the health and welfare of our teammates.”
Bridgestone Americas received Excellence Awards for its Long Beach, CA, and Oxford, NC, plants for achieving a Days Away Restricted Transfer (DART) rate that is 75% better than the average achieved by plants that provide data to the RMA. The company captured Improvement Awards for its Wilson, NC, and Abilene, TX, plants for achieving a DART rate that is both 10% better than its rate in the previous year and the same or better than the RMA average incidence rate.
The RMA’s Safety and Health Improvement Program was created in 1981 to recognize member companies that achieve significant enhancements in worker health and safety. Five tire manufacturers, including Bridgestone Americas, were recognized this year for their 2013 improvements.
In addition to the recent RMA recognition, Bridgestone Americas has had nine plants achieve OSHA VPP Star status, OSHA’s highest honor. This includes all three of the tire plants in the U.S. to achieve OSHA VPP Star status.
