At Ipsco's new plate mill in Montpelier, Iowa, maintenance operators can earn up to 150 percent of their base pay from a production bonus based on safety and housekeeping, profitability, yield, and productivity.
Operators get a letter with each paycheck explaining how the production bonus was figured.
Unlike foremen or supervisors in other plants, team leaders have a line job alongside everybody else on each team. The operators have not only direct control over 65 percent of their bonus but also partial responsibility for judging what the bonus is. The arrangement evinces an extraordinary level of trust in the operators by Ipsco's managers. One operator had an accident that required 40 stitches in his arm. Although it's easier to start a New Steel work culture at a new, nonunion mill than at an existing, unionized one, the latter are making important innovations, too.