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From
the Office of the Chairman
Bob
Hamscher
July 14, 2004
A TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY IS KNOCKING AT
OUR GATES…
This Friday, July 16th
a new committee will be assembling in front of the Main Office at
7:30 a.m.
Another
committee? Right???
I can hardly wait. Big
deal! I’ve either been on
or a part of so many committees that I would rather not count them all.
EXCEPT…THIS
ONE DOES COUNT! More
than any other committee I have ever been a part of.
Welcome to the beginning of the Iron/Steel Productivity Team.
This Team consists of workers from the Blast Furnace, BOF, Caster
and even a couple of engineers from Maintenance, Engineering and
Utilities (MEU) that move our subs back and forth from the Blast Furnace
and BOF. The appropriate
Managers from the areas affected are also part of this Team. OUR
GOAL IS CLEAR. GET OUR
STEELMAKING OPERATION TO 50 CAST HEATS PER DAY. Never
before has a group from all four areas ever assembled and tried to
tackle the impossible.
Our first order of
business is to tour the Blast Furnace, the BOF and finally the Caster.
At some point we will bring in the Slab Haulers for their input
when the time is right.
THERE IS ONE HELL OF AN
OPPORTUNITY
HERE! We
feel that we can strengthen all the weak links with our operation;
starting with the Blast Furnace and Engineers, to the BOF, LTS and
Caster as well. The Team’s
job will be to collectively identify all issues that we need to either
fix, remove or improve on, to make all connections in this very
important process highly efficient. The impact of all of this is nothing
short of enormous! $40,000,000
a year…and that is a low estimate!
July 16th we take our tours.
That’s the easy part. Then
we get to work! I believe
this can be done…Why? Because
Ma Beth never took the time… or the money to do this.
ISG and this
Union
are taking the time, and spending the
money. Look, things take
time and it’s not a perfect system… but the system is good enough to
pull this off. I
challenge every one of you to share your ideas when asked, make the
changes we find are necessary, and put out the same good effort that
this Team is going to put out over the next several months to accomplish
this monumental goal. WE
NEED MORE SLABS…AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!
Our Team also needs to step up to the plate and do what we say we
will do to help the operation and give you the tools and opportunity you
need.
Our role is to
identify opportunities, and your role is to help us do that!
The orders are there, the price of steel is at an all
time high, I believe that this Team and our current experienced
workforce can do something that has never been done before at this
plant. Put out 50 heats a
day – every day – and cast 100% of what we put out with damn good
quality. More slabs are a
great benefit to the Cold Mill, Hot Mill and our Plate Division. With an increase
of this magnitude, it would have a significant impact on everyone’s
earnings level in every area of this plant.
IT’S TIME TO CASH IN! It’s
going to take more than this Team …we need your help.
Let’s put ISG,
Burns
Harbor
on the map! This
accomplishment could be worth $40,000,000 – that is a tremendous
opportunity. I
challenge all of you; step up to the plate, make a positive difference,
this is a tremendous opportunity and we need to take advantage of it.
As Paul Gipson said, “This committee is one-of-a-kind, and
could be the catalyst to the highest level of productivity this plant
has ever before seen. It has
my 100% approval and support.”
Paul Gipson,
President
Bob Hamscher, Chairman – Incentive Cmte.
Local 6787 ~ United Steelworkers of
America
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