George F. Babcoke with Kosice's steelmakers
Senior Vice President - Europe & Global Operations Services United States Steel Corporation George F. Babcoke visited Kosice between Oct 15 - 17, 2012. After undertaking a plant tour accompanied by USSK President David J. Rintoul, at a meeting with USSK managers, he informed the attendees about the current steel markets situation and about USX outlooks in the 4th quarter of 2012 and on into 2013, and he evaluated OSH performance. George Babcoke appreciated the company staff's efforts for injury rate reduction and pointed out that he sees further room for improvement despite the reported progress. He said that there is much work ahead in this area to be done by the company staff. As he said, the recently-organized Family Safety Days event with very positive feedback represents one of the means of highlighting the importance of occupational safety.
Diplomats at U. S. Steel Kosice
Heads of diplomatic missions accredited in the Slovak Republic visited Kosice and the region on Oct 12 - 13, 2012. Ambassadors from 46 countries arrived in Eastern Slovakia upon the invitation of the SR Minister of Foreign and EU Affairs Miroslav Lajcak. The SR Ministry of Foreign Affairs organizes a session for the diplomats on an annual basis always in a different region of this country, and Kosice was chosen this year because of the upcoming year 2013 when Kosice together with French Marseille will become European Capital of Culture. On Friday, Oct 12, the guests visited U. S. Steel Kosice.
AMCHAM members visit U. S. Steel Kosice
On Wednesday, Oct 10, 2012, the American Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors meeting in Slovakia took place on the company premises of U. S. Steel Kosice. At first, the group of nine AmCham members led by CEO Jake Slegers met U. S. Steel Kosice President David J. Rintoul and other USSK top managers. The AmCham representatives' program at our company included a tour of selected operations, which was followed by the Board meeting itself.
EMS audit
On 16 and 17 October U. S. Steel Kosice underwent a recertification audit for its implementation of the environmental management system (EMS) in line with the European standard ISO 14 001:2004 in five divisional plants and six staff departments. The auditors of the certification company TÜV NORD Slovakia recommended granting USSK a certificate for a further three-year period.
Award for Good Practice
The project by U. S. Steel Kosice, entered for the competition named Good Practice organized by the National Focal Point of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, has been awarded first place by the jury of experts. The project now proceeds to the international round, where it will be assessed together with entries from the other EU member countries. USSK has entered this competition with a project called Enterprise Web Applications (EWA), or more specifically with one of its software applications covering the activity of employees' representatives. The results of the competition at European level will be known in the spring of 2013.
Wishing Trees to bring happiness to children again this year
In connection with U. S. Steel Kosice's end-of-year charity events, on Monday of this week, October 22, Mary Rintoul, the wife of USSK President David J. Rintoul, and the wives of other Company Vice Presidents visited the children at the foster homes in Podolinec and on Uralska Street in Kosice. Yesterday they also got together with children of USSK employees. These meetings formed part of the preparations for this year's Wishing Tree project and for the Christmas charity concert, in which many Company employees are actively involved.
