New O-N Minerals executive has a goal of mending labor strife

The new vice president/general manager of O-N Mineral?s Great Lakes Division is just not a shirt and tie guy, although there are certain occasions where one is required. When Mike Miclette is submitting a budget to the O-N Board of Directors in Cleveland, he?ll don the tie, but that?s about it. When Miclette is working in his corner office at the Rogers City plant, which overlooks the south side of the 10-plus story mill, he looks ready to put on a welder?s helmet. ?You can get just as much work done in a pair of blue jeans as you can with a coat and tie,? said Miclette last Friday. Miclette was given the reigns of the six sites that make up the Great Lakes Division back in September. Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a graduate of Louisiana State University, he has worked all over the country.

MICLETTE HAS worked on oil rigs on the Gulf of Mexico, and has had stops in the midwest, southeast, and west. He started working for Oglebay Norton in 1993. In 1999, he was asked to handle the responsibilities of plant manager of a facility in San Juan Capistrano, California. Gradually, O-N gave Miclette additional operations to oversee. He was in California when company officials asked him to relocate to northern Michigan.

?I have an industrial mineral background, (but) you are still talking about: drill and blast, load and haul, crushing, screening, washing,? Miclette said of coming to the Rogers City plant. ?Essentially, you are doing the same thing. This is on a much bigger scale.?

The size of the Rogers City operation is overwhelming, he said. ?Everything is massive in size and very, very expensive, for a relatively low selling priced product,? he said. ?You have to literally move millions and millions of tons in order to make this business profitable. And we do. We move millions and millions of tons.?

MOVING MILLIONS of tons of limestone may seem relatively easy considering Miclette?s mission as head of the Great Lakes Division as he attempts to bridge the gap between management and the blue collar work force. ?There has been such a tradition that the company is against the union, the union is against the company,? said Miclette. ?That does not benefit anybody. Part of my mission is to break those walls down.? He said that will be a huge task. ?How do you do that? You start out by treating people well and communicating expectations and holding people accountable,? said Miclette.

?One of the things we are working on is trying

to get input from our hourly employees to find ways to make this plant better,? he said. ?You are the ones that do the work all day long. We want your input. Rather than me sitting in a corner office saying ?I think we should do this.? ? Of the labor situation, the O-N Mineral boss said they use a lot of analogies in the south. The one he uses in this instance is: ?It is like trying to steer an iceberg with a trolling motor. Eventually it will turn, but if you look at it tomorrow you might not see a lot of difference between today and tomorrow. Let?s look at it a year from now. Let?s look at it two years from now.?

HE IS MARRIED with two daughters, one who entered her freshman year at LSU. The other daughter is a junior in high school. Since they have moved around the country so much, the couple agreed to let the girls complete high school where they started. Once the younger daughter graduates, Mike?s wife will move to Rogers City. He tries to visit his family every three to five weeks. Miclette likes to hunt birds and looks forward to snowmobiling and cross country skiing.