By Jesse Levine, Director Environment and Safety Regulatory Affairs, USTMA
From their products to the plant floor, U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) members are innovating and strengthening their systems, processes and cultures. And that’s what the recipients of this year’s USTMA Innovation and Leadership Awards – Bridgestone, Goodyear, and Michelin – did to earn recognition for advancing workplace safety and health.
Michelin’s culture innovation, a “WWE-style” championship belt challenge, empowers teammates to identify and correct safety issues, which further promotes a strong safety culture. Bridgestone’s technology innovation, a forklift ID, improves vehicle and pedestrian safety on the plant floor and provides better metrics for identifying and correcting risk.
USTMA’s new safety and health awards reflect the proactive steps members are taking to improve safety and health in the workplace. Our new “Leadership Award” –awarded this year to Bridgestone, Goodyear and Michelin—recognizes companies that share successful safety initiatives and our new “Innovation Award” recognizes companies that implement proactive programs or technologies to improve workplace safety and health.
As demonstrated in USTMA’s first Sustainability Report released earlier this year, our member companies are aiming to achieve zero workplace injuries and illnesses for their employees. With this mindset, our members’ commitment to workplace safety and health has led to significant advancements, including;
- A 50% reduction in our average Days Away, Restricted, Transfer (DART) rate, which measures serious injuries in the workplace;
- By the end of 2019, 90% of our facilities will have safety and health management systems in place. These comprehensive programs integrate four interdependent elements: management leadership and employee involvement; worksite analysis; hazard prevention and control; and safety and health training; and
- Overall increased participation in USTMA’s lessons-learned initiative to increase workplace safety.
As part of this year’s USTMA awards program, we’re also proud to recognize Bridgestone, Michelin, Pirelli, Toyo, and Yokohama for demonstrating excellent and improved performance based on their 2018 DART rates. Our Excellence Awards are provided to facilities that have a DART rate that is 75% better than the USTMA average. Our Improvement Awards are provided to facilities with a DART rate that is at least 10% higher than the prior year and is better than the USTMA average.
USTMA congratulates all our award-winning companies and facilities for the progress made toward our vision of zero workplace injuries and illnesses. Ultimately, we believe an ongoing commitment to strengthen and improve workplace safety and health will help us better serve and protect our most important resource: our people.