GM St. Catharines Employee Newsletter August 27, 2019
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TOGETHER WE WILL BUILD THE WORLD’S BEST PROPULSION SYSTEMS GM St. Catharines Employee Newsletter August 27, 2019 THEY SHOWED AND SHINED AT THE 21ST ANNUAL CAR SHOW Thanks to the support of the volunteer Car Show Committee, numerous Team Members from across the plant, and the perfect weather, our 21st Annual Show n’ Shine Car Show was a huge success! We had 409 vehicles registered, twice as many participants, 25 displays and vendors, and raised a total of $4,800.75! Part of the proceeds were raised from our $500 Draw held August 8 & 9, and the prize winner has already come forward. Congratulations to Doug Craig from WFG! GM St. Catharines Employee Newsletter Sam Hoodless | ext. 6619 | [email protected] Employee Information Hotline: 1-877-868-3895 | Employee Portal: www.gmstcatharines.ca GM St. Catharines Employee Newsletter 2 Judging was completed by employees from our plant and 26 awards were handed out at the show. This year’s trophy winners are: First Runner Up - Chevrolet: 1965 Acadian, Neil Blackie Best of Show - Chevrolet: 1972 Nova SS, Paul Barnes Best of Show Buick: LeSabre Convertible, John Haley First Runner Up - Cadillac: 1952 Fleetwood 60 Special, John Loreti Best of Show - Cadillac: 1958 Fleetwood 60 Special, Myles Keller Best of Show - Oldsmobile: 1965 F85 Cutlass, Gord Barnett Best of Show - Pontiac: 1973 Trans Am, John Miller First Runner Up - Truck: 1937 Chevrolet Pick-Up, Todd Barclay Best of Show - Truck: 1966 Chevrolet C10 Pick-Up, Lee Cratt Best of Show - Corvette C1-C3 1953-1982: 1963 Corvette, Steve Ratkovsky Best of Show - Corvette C4-C6 1984-2019: 2012 Corvette Z06 (Centennial Edition), Mike Ardito Best of Show - GM-Powered/Non-GM: 1923 Yellow Ford T-Bucket, Don Scott Best of Show - Tuner/Sport Compact: 2007 Saturn Sky, William Toy Best of Show - Camaro/Firebird 1993-2019: 2019 Camaro ZL1, Sean Stacy Best of Show - Camaro/Firebird 1967-1992: 1967 Camaro SS, Dan Gillard Best of Show - Chevelle/Beaumont: 1967 Chevelle SS 396, Pat St. Amand Best of Show - Most Radical: 1985 Chevette, Kipp Grady Best of Show - Engine Compartment: Chevrolet Caprice, John Cole Club Participation: Firebird Club of Canada Best of Show - Plant Manager's Selection: 1956 Corvette Convertible, Jim Kish Special Interest: 1977 Eleganza 2 GMC Motorhome, James Mcafee Engineering Pick: 1959 Chevrolet Pick-Up Truck, Raymond Jomphe Vintage: 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, Mario Pagnotta People's Choice - 3rd Place: 1966 Pontiac GTO, Dan DiPietro People's Choice - 2nd Place: 1967 Pontiac Firebird, Lee Cratt People's Choice - 1st Place: 1936 Ford 3-Window Coupe (GM-Powered), Gord Gibbs Our unique trophies are assembled in-house using 6.2L pistons from our Gen V engine department. Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's car show! All proceeds were donated to United Way Niagara for the Backpacks for Kids program and Welcome Home Kits. To view the entire photo gallery visit the Show n’ Shine webpage at www.gmstcatharines.ca (photos courtesy of Brennan Black, Stephanie Thompson, Jeff Smee and Mary Henning). You can also watch a YourTV video from the event at https://yourtv.tv/node/197341. GM St. Catharines Employee Newsletter 3 CALLING ALL STEM ENTHUSIASTS! STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) is all around us these days. We know that the future belongs to those who participate in STEM as a career. Are you looking for a great STEM project to share with a youth in your life, ages 9-14? Are you interested in working collaboratively on a team, and sharing an interest in learning more about STEM through the world of Lego Robotics? Do you have connections with like-minded adults that would be willing to put a team of 2-10 students together to form a robotics team? The FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is looking for mentors, parents and new students to join the program in Niagara. The GM St. Catharines Propulsion Plant has been volunteering for over 13 years to bring more STEM programming to the youth of Niagara. FLL wants to grow and is looking for interested adults to work as coaches to start teams, either independently in their community or at their local elementary schools. There are lots of resources and ways to get started. All you have to do is express an interest for your kids to be involved. If you are interested in starting a team, please contact Phil Homerski at [email protected]. For any questions about the program or general inquiries about FIRST and GM’s involvement, please contact Stephanie Thompson ([email protected]). GM St. Catharines Employee Newsletter 4 ISO 14001 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT RESULTS This year our annual Environmental Management System (EMS) external audit was conducted from August 5 -9 by DNV. This audit included all of GM St. Catharines’ operations and activities under the EMS, consistent with new requirements as we transition to the new International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001:2015 Management System. On behalf of DNV and the Environmental Department, we would like to thank everyone for your cooperation, time and continuing commitment to the St. Catharines ROAD Environmental Policy. The audit results are as follows: Result Category Issue/Explanation Findings 0 Observations 1.The document control procedure requires review and minor revisions. Opportunities for 0 Improvement Noteworthy Efforts 1.The Landfill Gas Generation Plant implementation appears promising, reducing 80% of carbon dioxide production and providing excellent financial paybacks. 2.The organization demonstrates excellent housekeeping and workplace organization. Waste management areas have good labeling, storage and pollution prevention practices in place, with truck repair and boiler house showing great improvements. For any environmental inquiries, please contact the Environmental Department: Gavin Coman – Lead Sr. Environmental Officer, ext. 6375 Deric Coolman – Environmental EIT, ext. 6156 Monica Czechowski – Environmental Intern, ext. 6608 BUTT...DID YOU KNOW? • 95% of cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, a slow degrading plastic. • Filters are designed to accumulate particulate smoke components including toxic chemicals. • Globally, about 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced each year which translates into 2.1 billion pounds or 2,800,000 m3 of space of discarded butts. This is equivalent to filling the St. Catharines GM plant 10 times! • Cigarette butts are the most common debris collected in international cleanup activities. • Toxicity tests on Daphnia Magna (water flea) indicate 100% death rate after 48 hours soaking in a 2 gallon solution containing distilled water and ONLY one cigarette filter. • Cigarette butts are a significant biohazard to our environment. Every time it rains, chemicals leach into our storm drains, which lead into our lakes and eventually become our drinking water. • It is estimated that cigarette debris is responsible for killing at least one million sea birds and 100,000 mammals annually. Please place your spent cigarette butts in the designated smoking area containers! Think before you toss! For more information call: Ext. 6011 - Unifor Environmental Rep OR Ext. 6375,6608, 6156 - Environmental .