November 24th 2000 USSK was established

Five years ago, on November 24th 2000 the new history of steel production in the metropolis of Eastern Slovakia began. The transaction between VSZ and U. S. Steel was signed with irrevocable validity. On that day VSZ President Gabriel Eichler took the final symbolic step at the end of all the demanding negotiations when he ceremoniallly handed over to U. S. Steel Kosice President John H. Goodish the magnetic card to his office, and with it also the steelmaking parts of the factory.
In the five years since then the Kosice steelworks have undergone many changes. Fundamental changes in management approach have transformed a firm in decline into a company capable of competing with the best of the world's steel producers, and whose priorities are first and foremost occupational safety, product quality, cost saving, customer service and transparency in all processes.
It is not by chance that U. S. Steel Kosice was recently declared Slovakia's Company of the Year. This award is a reflection of the results in which all USSK employees have played their part. To mark the occasion of the fifth anniversary of U. S. Steel Kosice, Ocel Vychodu has prepared a special supplement presenting a quick cross-section of the Company's activities to date.

David H. Lohr has a working lunch with Transport employees

Last week, for the sixth time since his arrival in Kosice, U. S. Steel Kosice President David H. Lohr met selected employees of the firm for a working lunch. His guests on Wednesday, November 16th, were nine Transport Division staff. Also attending the meeting were Vice-president Employee Relations and Motivation Martin Pitorak and General Manager Power Engineering and Transport Vladimir Jacko.
The Transport Division covers road and rail transport and provides services to all Company divisions and co-users of the railway sidings. As the President pointed out, it is one of the key parts of the Company. Every year the Transport staff shift by rail more than thirty million tons of different materials and products into and out of the Kosice works.

"Wishing Trees" in four places

On Monday morning, November 21st, USSK President's wife Susan Lohr hung the Wishing Trees with little cards marked with the particular modest wishes of the children in specific children's homes in the East Slovakian region. The children are hoping for gifts such as books, toys, cosmetics, scale models, everyday clothes, balls and table-tennis bats. These Wishing Trees are placed at four locations around the works, and the collection of gifts will be continuing until December 2nd. The four Wishing Trees are hung with a total of around one thousand cards with wishes from children in need.

Open Your Heart

The benefit concert in the Premonstratensian Church of the Holy Trinity in Kosice which took place on Saturday evening, November 19th, was the starting event in this year's Kosice Archdiocese charity campaign entitled Open Your Heart. The general sponsor of the concert was U. S. Steel Kosice, and it featured performances by popular personalities and groups from the Slovakian music scene.
Recorded highlights of this particularly interesting concert will be broadcast by Slovak Television on November 27th at 5 pm on Channel Two. This charity campaign always begins in the pre-Christmas period, and according to the information given at the associated press conference by Kosice Archdiocese charity director Jan Deco, its aim is to act on the public to make them able and willing to take active notice of the problems of individuals and society as a whole. In this respect the charity intends to focus primarily on improving and intensifying communication with the public.