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WHITBY FREE PRESS, DURHAM MOVES, MAY 18, 1988,-PAGE Ai GM receives award for safety record General Motors-of Canada pres- ident George Peapples recently received the Construction Safety Association of Canada's award of excellence for . the company's construction safety record during the building of GM's $8-billion autoplex. The award was presented by Len Sylvester, general manager of the Construction Safety Associ- ation of Canada. "Autoplex is the largest and most modern automotive asembly complex in North America. Des- pite this massive undertaking, the frequency of accidents on our construction site was approxi- mately one-third the provincial average," said Peapples as he accepted the award. GEORGEPEAPPLES Peapples attributed the safety record to the cooperation of many groups including safety . and engineering personnel at GM, the Toronto chapter of the Con- struction Safety Association of Ontario, representatives of the Canadian Auto Workers, the Building Trades Council and "the thousands of responsible people who work on our projects." "I look at GM as the future of health and safety in the prov- ince," said Minister of Labor Greg Sorbara who attended the cere- mony. He added that a good safety record starts when a pre-commitment is given that a project will proceed "in a healthy way." Also attending the ceremony were: Jack Whalen, chairman of local 222 of the Canadian Auto Workers; George MacDonell, president of the Council of Ontario Contractors; and Tony Michael, president of the Toronto and Central Ontario Building and Construction Trades Council. Each was presented with a plaque for their role in keeping injuries to a minimum during the autoplex construction. Sylvester noted that injuries were three and a half times less frequent than the provincial average during the 26-million manhours that went into the construction of autoplex. "If this massive job had run as the average frequency rate there would have been over 900 more injured workers," said Sylvester. Those attending the present- ation were also taken on a tour of GM's new stamping plant. Construction on the $660-mil- lion plant began in October 1984, with operations starting in December 1986. The plant covers just less than 17 acres, having an area of 440,000 sq. ft., and housing nine stamping presses, each weighing about 2,200 tons. Seven of the presses are from Japan while the other two are from Germany. Automated Guided - Vehicles (AGV) which run on wires embesdded in the floors, carry the steel to the presses for shaping and use in production of the GM 10, Buick Regal. Tour guide Stewart Chambers said the nine presses do the work of 63 conventional presses and will soon begin producing body parts for the 1989 Chevy to be produced at GM in the future. Each press cost between $10- and 21-million. Men now unload parts from tne presses for transportation to the car plant, but the AGVs will soon be handling that task so that human hands will not touch the steel until it is placed on a car. A two-mile monorail system, which runs 22 feet above the stamping plant floor, is used to transport the finished parts to a storage area. From there, through a com- puter, parts are ordered for use on the cars. Again, parts are delivered by AGVs which can carry 50 tons at a time. The presses can produce 76,000 parts in two shifts while pro- ducing 45,000 tons of scrap metal an hour. There are currently 340 employees working in the stamping plant on two shifts. The safety reoid "is a signal of our commitment to providing a safe work environment for all GM OF OSHAWA'S new $660-million stampingplant. employees," said Peapples. "And this commitment extends beyond our GM employées, because we also' insist that the numèrous construction companies working with us on our projects imple- ment safety programs of their 'BIKE BACK' own and maitain high safety standards. In fact, safety has become an important part of our tendering and re-bid process." Sticker program prevents thefts By Const. Peter Bramma Durham Regional police As a follow-up to my. previous article on bicycle safety, I would like to make you aware of a crime prevention program dealing strictly with the problem of bicycle thefts. The program is called "Save Your Bike with a Bike Back Sticker." For many years the police force was aware that cycle theft was a serious problem. In fact more than 2,000 bicycles were stolen each year throughout the region with fewer than 25 per cent being returned to the owners. Finding a solution to this problem had been elusive, although a registration program of some sort was an obvious answer. The trouble was that all previous registration programs, after a strong start, eventually failed. Subsequently, prior to the. "Bike Back Sticker" start-up .in 1985, there had not been a registration program for about 10 years. The absence of a program of this nature • resulted in a continually increasing theft rate combined with little chance of the owner ever getting the bike back. You see, even though the polise would recover hundreds of stolen bikes every year, finding the owners was very difficult as there was no easy reference system through which the owner could be located. In fact, a manual check of the police reports had to be done, and often the description of the bike left a lot to be desired as far as accuracy was concerned, and more often than not the serial number was not known. The searches made using this system were often unsuccessful and as a result up to 500 bikes were auctioned off each year as the proper owner, could not be located. Const. Mike Bevan of the crime prevention unit, seeking a solution to the problem, learned that the Oshawa Optimist Club SEE PAGE A6 CONSIDFfE FREES UP CASH, (Ba HE BENEFITS OF LEASING MORE CARS FORLE$$ FAAIVULYLiU L - LT% ONE STOP SHOPPING 101 BROCK ST. S., WHITBY 400 KING ST. W., OSHAWA 579- 2243 TABLE OF CONTENTS New Toyota dealership See page A3 'Ladybird' See page A8 . .. .. s . - -- -- - . . s. ..