The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
Getting to know their neighbours in areas in which their company operates is the regular course of business for Polish mining company KGHM, say three of its executives.
The company prides itself on its relationship with employees at its three mines and two smelters in southwest Poland, and the communities they are in. KGHM has made what it is essentially a $3.5-billion offer to acquire Quadra FNX, which has holdings in Sudbury, the United States and South America.
Shareholders will vote on that offer this month. The company is calling it a “friendly acquisition” in which it will pay shareholders up to $3 billion — or $15 a share — and take on the company’s $500-million debt.
KGHM general director Jarek Romanovski, business development officer Chr is Kubacki and director Artur Wienowski visited Sudbury this week to meet with Quadra FNX managers and employees, and leaders in the community.
“We want to make sure people know who we are and put some names to the faces,” Kubacki told The Sudbury Star.
They met with Laurentian University president Dominic Giroux , Mayor Mar ianne Matichuk and Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci, who is also minister of Northern Developm e nt and Mines. They received positive feedback from all three, they said.
The men were struck with the similarities between their area of Poland and Sudbury.
The weather is somewhat similar, both have historically been mining regions, and people in Poland and Sudbury “feel very attached to their area. We have people who have been working in mines for decades, different generations,” said Kubacki.
His country also faces one of the key challenges of the mining industry -the shortage of skilled workers.
In Poland, KGHM hires from top technical universities, so it made sense to “source” Laurentian for a future pool of skilled people, said Kubacki.
Wienowski said KGHM pays wages above the industry average and is “the employer of choice for many educated people in Poland, so we have no problem hiring.”
KGHM operations have strong unions.
“They have their issues, they articulate (them) and sometimes we discuss … but we find solutions. So it’s working, it’s working,” he said.
KGHM did not meet with the union representing production and maintenance workers at Quadra FNX, United Steelworkers Local 2020, this time, but Romanovski said it will when the acquisition is complete.
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