By Dennis Seid Daily Journal TUPELO – Cooper Tire was among four tire manufacturers recognized for excellence and improvements in worker health and safety by the Rubber Manufacturers Association. Cooper’s plant in Tupelo was one of 12 tire-making facilities – and the only Cooper plant – to win an award. The Tupelo plant, which opened in 1984 and employs about 1,600 people, won an “Improvement” award from RMA. Two categories of awards are given to companies that “demonstrate workplace safety excellence and improvements,” which are measured by the incidence rate for lost workday cases, according to RMA. The “Excellence” category is for facilities that achieve a Days Away Restricted Transfer (DART) rate that is 75 percent better than the average achieved by plants that provided data to RMA. The “Improvement” award is for plants that achieve a Days Away Restricted Transfer (DART) rate that is both 10 percent better than its rate in the previous year and is the same or better than the RMA average incidence rate. Forty-seven plants from RMA member companies supplied data for the annual survey to be eligible for awards.