Then it was away to the airport to pick up Jo-Anne Vanstone. Her plane was delayed by about an hour due to technical difficulties (doesn't it fill you with confidence when you hear something like this?) but it was a pleasant afternoon and the time passed quickly.
Once Jo-Anne had unpacked we had dinner.
Since this was not a big news day, I feel entitled to inflict some more philosophy on my readers. We will explore:
The Nash Equilibrium: The conclusion reached by Nash was that the most successful outcome of a venture came when participants put aside their own wants and pursued the best outcome for the group.
This was my "eureka" moment while watching the movie "A Beautiful Mind". It acknowledged to me precisely why I thought Dofasco had been more successful than Stelco.
Dofasco was founded by the Sherman brothers in the early 1900's. After the company almost went under during the Depression, the two Sherman brothers decided that their employees (who had sacrificed for the company to keep them afloat during the bad times) should share in the success of the company if it survived. So, in 1937 they instituted profit sharing. Employees and their families were also provided with a company picnic and Christmas party, to go along with the company mantra of The Golden Rule and the Open Door Policy. The Shermans walked the walk.
The annual picnics at Port Dalhousie ultimately ended. Some employees were abandoning their families at the picnic and repairing to nearby bars, which led to fights and local damage. Not the Dofasco way. But the other aspects survived and the loyalty of most of the men and women to the Sherman vision was unequivocal and the company grew over the years.
Meanwhile, at Stelco, the managers of the publicly traded company had a different vision: one of autocratic, bullying warlords. Where Dofasco encouraged its workers to use the Open Door Policy and pursue their complaints all the way up to the office of the President, at Stelco you were at the mercy of your boss. This ultimately led to the creation of Local 1005 and the devastating strike of 1946, and Stelco's fate was sealed.
Being in the Sales Department gave some of us a unique perspective on the two very different cultures. Every three years Stelco was at war. Their customers could look forward to running out of steel while regular strikes took place. They would come to Dofasco for help, but the capacity wasn't there to satisfy all of them. So, over the ensuing three years they would place a bigger share with us to give themselves more protection for the next time and Dofasco was able to expand because of this support.
The union would often brag about bringing Stelco to its knees, not realizing, or perhaps simply ignoring, the damage they were doing to their employer. It's hard to fight and be successful when you're on your knees! Earnings went down, the company couldn't afford to modernize, nor meet all of their financial commitments. Something had to give and funding of the employees' pensions was one of the victims.
As this scenario unfolded before us, the value of our culture became clearer and clearer to Dofasco employees. During my last couple of years at the company, a friendly takeover was being negotiated with Thyssen Steel. Then, Arcelor stepped in and ultimately were successful in pushing Thyssen out of the picture. However, while that was in progress, Arcelor themselves became a takeover target of Mittal Steel. And so, ArcelorMittal Dofasco was born.
Since most of their stable of companies had unions, ArcelorMittal opened the door for Dofasco employees to also join a union. By this time, I was watching from the sidelines and was truly amazed when, within a few weeks, the Steelworkers' Union gave up because the employees were totally unreceptive! Here they were, having become part of an unknown company, with a bottom feeding reputation, turning their backs on union protection.
I think this very much surprised ArcelorMittal and made them look at Dofasco through different eyes. They bought into the Dofasco Way. Today, many Dofasco managers are in charge of global aspects of the ArcelorMittal empire. And Dofasco systems are widely admired.
This year profit sharing, by itself, gave the employees more money than the minimum wage that Tim Horton's employees are fighting to receive!
In contrast we all know what has happened to Stelco. From being a company that at one time had twice as many employees as Dofasco, they are now a twice bankrupt shell. Management never changed, and the workers who bragged about bringing the company to its knees are now on their knees begging for their pensions to be protected.
You were right John Nash! Thank you Sherman brothers!
Does the fact that most of our Tromper group came out of that work environment explain how we have stayed together for 35 years? Or, are we just the kind of ‘one for all and all for one’ kind of guys that would have stayed together anyway? Great musings partner! ( the time now is 7:32 and we’re back in the deep freeze this morning)
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