Presidents visit steelmakers on New Year's Eve

Three hours before midnight, at a time when the great majority of steelmakers were making the last preparations on December 31st to welcome the New Year together with their families, U. S. Steel Kosice President Christopher Navetta was making his way to the factory. He was going to visit the workers at the Power Division, the Blast Furnaces and Strip Mills - employees whose turn on shift came exactly on New Year's Eve. Shortly after 9 pm another visitor arrived on Company premises, the President of the Slovak Republic Rudolf Schuster, who came to wish the steelmakers good health and every success in the New Year. In their meetings with people in the plants, the Presidents were accompanied by the Head of the SR President's Office in Kosice Jozef Sirotnak, USSK Vice-president Operations Scott C. Pape and the Chairman of the Council of trades union Metalurg at U. S. Steel Kosice Mikulas Dula.

Christopher Navetta thanks employees

This issue of Ocel Vychodu publishes the New Year message by USSK President Christopher Navetta to the Company's employees, in which he thanks them for the results achieved last year. He also observes that in 2004 we begin fulfiling the expectations and facing the challenges of the new era that is now unfolding for this Company as well as for Slovakia. This issue of Ocel Vychodu also features a message to employees from the Metalurg trades union steelworks branch chairman Robert Kulik.

Benefits of continuous improvement

An integral part of the corporate vision established by U. S. Steel Kosice is the process of transformation through continuous improvement (CI). The aim of this is to achieve measurable improvements in our performance in the areas of safety, costs, quality, productivity and personal development of employees. Implementation of the CI process started in September 2001, and it has brought marked benefits to the Company. The present guarantor of the CI process at USSK is Vice-president Operations Scott Pape.

The best skittlers

For several years now Mikulas Kuba from the Mechanika Division has been one of the best skittles players among the men working for U. S. Steel Kosice. He took up this sport as a 12-year-old in his native village Semsa, which was not unusual as practically every young boy and girl could try it at the local skittles alley. When still an adolescent he transferred to the skittles section of the Hutne stavby Kosice sports club, whose senior men's team played in the first nationwide league. Miki soon felt at home in the colors of the Kosice construction company, becoming regional champion four times and taking part as an adolescent or junior in the former Czechoslovak championships in Prague, Vsetin or Opava. Our new champion has worked at the Kosice steelworks since 1981, and every year he takes part in the Company skittles championships and the Summer Olympiad, which he has won three times. This year he finished in second spot, ending up just two skittles short of the Olympian gold.

The women's competition was clearly dominated by Jolana Mudra from Purchasing. She also started playing in Semsa, but skittling for her is recreational. "I find it a very relaxing way to spend my free time, but seeing as I could knock them down pretty well when I was younger, I was bold enough to match my skills with the professionals in the VSZ or U. S. Steel Kosice women's championships," Ocel Vychodu was told by the new steelworks women's skittles champion Jolana Mudra.