OPTECH Hybrid Project effective since November 1st

On Friday of last week, November 13th, U. S. Steel Kosice Company Officers Patrick J. Mullarkey and Martin Pitorak, Metalurg U. S. Steel Kosice Trades Union Council Chairman Mikulas Hintos and NKOS KOVO U. S. Steel Kosice Trades Union Works Branch Chairman Milan Beregszaszi, representing the employers and employees respectively, signed Amendment No.3 to the Collective Agreement covering the period 2008 to 2011. The document which the parties agreed on sets out the conditions for awarding a one-off incentive bonus as part of the OPTECH Hybrid Project, and is effective backdated to November 1st, 2009. Its implementation will be of key importance for the Company in the coming months, commented Patrick J. Mullarkey. He pointed out that a project similar to OPTECH Hybrid in Kosice had been implemented as part of the extensive restructuring of the Corporation's American operations in 2003. The result was the combining of several hundred operators' and maintenance workers' job positions.

Meeting for Company's long-term employees

The third, the largest and at the same time the last of this year's groups of long-term employees of U. S. Steel Kosice - those celebrating thirty, thirty-five and forty years of employment at the steelworks - came together for a celebratory evening on Friday, November 6th. The event was organized by USSK Human Resources Department in the function rooms of the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Kosice, with more than 160 invitees from the Company's Management Section, the Blast Furnaces and Steel Plants Divisions, and subsidiaries U. S. Steel Kosice - Labortest, s.r.o. and U. S. Steel Kosice - SBS, s.r.o.
The guests were thanked for their work for the firm by U. S. Steel Kosice President George F. Babcoke and by Metalurg Trades Union Council Vice Chairman Juraj Varga. Both emphasized the importance of the long-term employees for the organization, and expressed their hope that through teamwork the Company would soon overcome the difficulties which the steel industry is currently facing in connection with the economic crisis. The official part of the evening which followed, with presentations of awards to the celebrating employees, was attended by Company Vice Presidents and Directors of the sections, divisions and subsidiaries involved, as well as representatives of the trades union organizations. The invited employees received silver and gold commemorative plaques, and those who had worked forty years for the Company were given wristwatches.

Locomotives repainted in line with Corporation standard

The old blue color has been replaced with new red and yellow livery on eight of the thirty-seven Company locomotives this year. By the end of the year, in fact, there should be eleven locomotives with new paintwork operating on the USSK sidings, and Transport staff expect to have all of them resprayed by the end of next year, 2010. The first three red and yellow engines appeared on the rail tracks back in the summer of this year. The change of color in line with the Corporation standard was carried out in one case by an external supplier, and a further two locomotives returned to the steelworks sidings after having new engines installed in Zvolen. Renovation of the remaining locomotives will be taken care of by the employees of the Transport Division themselves.