May 17, 2021.–A May 6 webinar by WAI’s New England Chapter featured labor attorney Katherine Witherspoon Fry, who discussed a number of legal issues stemming from Covid-19.

Fry discussed topics from the importance of a company enforcing its Covid-19 rules and allowing sales visits in a plant to use of tax credits for employee sick days and what to do about an employee who that tests positive more than once. She also responded to attendee questions, one of which would likely be of interest to any manufacturer or OEM: can a company require an employee to be vaccinated? Fry explained that while all the available vaccines are classified as for emergency authorization only, “you can mandate those for people who don’t have disabilities or religious objections.”

“I thought the presentation was extremely useful not only for wire and cable business owners, but for WAI members in management positions,” said New England Chapter President John Accorsi, who served as moderator for the webinar. "Katherine discussed a number of real-world examples of situations you want to avoid.”

Editor’s note: After the May 13th announcement by the CDC that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a face mask or stay six feet away from others in most settings, whether outdoors or indoors, Fry said in an e-mail that the news is very encouraging. and may incentivize many employees to become vaccinated. “However, if the state in which your employees are working mandates masks, don’t allow vaccinated people to unmask yet in office, at company events, or when meeting with people in public for business purposes. Continue to follow state guidance for health reasons and to demonstrate that your business isn’t negligent.”

Fry will provide more thoughts on Covid-19 and employers in the June issue of WJI.

5/14/2021: The Prysmian Group will display its commitment to Diversity & Inclusion through its first Global eNclusion Week, a five-day digital event that will take place from 17 to 21 May, featuring a series of digital panels and workshops on the importance and advantages of building diverse and inclusive workspaces. The program will focus on four main themes: Gender Diversity; Diversity & Inclusion in all its forms; Inclusive Culture in the workplace; and Generational D&I.

The Global eNclusion Week opens Monday, May 17, with remarks from Fabrizio Rutschmann, Prysmian Group CHRO, followed by speeches by: Valerio Battista, Prysmian Group CEO; Mimi Kung, Prysmian Group Independent Board Member; Eric Rondolat, Signify CEO; Sabrina Ritossa Fernandez, Sycomore Asset Management; Maria Cristina Bifulco, Chief Sustainability Officer & IR Director Prysmian Group; and Massimo Battaini, Prysmian Group COO. The Global eNclusion Week will offer the opportunity to know more about how countries, companies and associations are promoting Diversity & Inclusion around the world.

To register for the event, use this address: https://twitter.com/PrysmianGroup/status/1390264163780505600/photo/1

With the participation of an international and multicultural community, this initiative will feature one week of events open to everyone, where speakers from different industries and with different background will share their knowledge and best practices related to Diversity & Inclusion.
“We strongly believe that leveraging on gender, age and cultural diversity means creating more value and we are constantly building a work environment where all our employees can feel understood, respected and included, just as they are. This event is more than an aspiration: it is a necessity, or better, a business case for a Group that has to work with customers, suppliers and shareholders with different backgrounds and cultures. In order to improve this approach, it is necessary to raise awareness and build a positive dialogue, which can contribute to advancing the Group’s corporate culture," said Fabrizio Rutschmann, Chief HR Officer Prysmian Group.

Prysmian Group's goal is to further enhance its human capital, which can be found in its some 28,000 employees worldwide. The increase in the percentage of women, both among white-collar workers and at the level of top managers, is among the sustainability parameters to which the payment of the company managers’ variable remuneration has been linked.

As evidence of the strategic importance of gender and cultural diversity, Prysmian has also set up a new global Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee, tasked with overseeing the achievement of the objectives that the Group has set itself. The Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee has the responsibility to define D&I objectives at each organizational level and support the definition of the actions to achieve and to promote a cultural change to facilitate Diversity & Inclusion within the work environment. The Committee is composed by Prysmian Turkey Human Resources Director Aysun Kalmik, acting as Leader, and Product Development Manager of the Lincoln (Rhode Island) plant Prasha Sarwate, as Deputy Leader.

In order to improve the gender balance in its workforce, the Group has committed to achieving the following Diversity & Inclusion objectives by 2022:

• Ensuring 40% of women hired (female white collars hired with a permanent contract) on total hirings (34% in 2020 compared to 30% in 2016);
• Increasing from 21.9% to 25% the percentage of women managers (from junior to top positions);
• Improving gender balance with regard to executive positions: from 6% in 2016 to 18% in 2022.

In addition, fundamental indicators (e.g., security) have been implemented in all the Groups’ 104 plants.

Prysmian Group believes in the value of individuals, backgrounds, leadership styles and attitudes because each person has the potential to generate value to the Company. Its global footprint enables the Group to promote an inclusive environment, encouraging the development of corporate culture and identity. Side by Side is Prysmian Group’s project that promotes Diversity & Inclusion across the organization.

May 12, 2021 – Due to the effects and uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, Messe Düsseldorf India decided to reschedule the combined staging of the wire India, Tube India, METEC India and India Essen Cutting & Welding trade fairs. Originally scheduled for September 2021, the four events will now take place from November 23-25, 2022 at the Bombay Exhibition Center in Mumbai.

“Our objective remains to support the economic recovery by providing a leading platform for conducting businesses safely and effectively at our trade fairs," Messe Düsseldorf India Managing Director Thomas Schlitt said in a press release. He noted that the recent development in the pandemic situation does not allow a reliable planning for the trade fairs in India for the next few months. "These circumstances make it impossible to hold the Indian Metal Fairs in September 2021. The decision to reschedule the trade fairs to November 2022 was made after careful evaluation of the situation together with our partners and key stakeholders.”

With this decision, Messe Düsseldorf India is taking into account its obligations towards its partners in the metal and metallurgy industry in India and worldwide, the release said. The postponement to a later date will ensure that the events will continue to provide a leading platform to bring global industry stakeholders together again. “We trust that by 2022 the international travel restrictions will be lifted and we will again see a large international participation given the international nature of our events. We are grateful to all our partners for their continued support in these unprecedented times. We stay committed and will take every possible measure in supporting and creating resilient business at India’s leading industry events for the metal and metallurgy sector,“ Schlitt said.

For further information on visiting or exhibiting at wire India, Tube Indi or METEC India 2022, contact Messe Düsseldorf North America, tel. (312) 781-5180, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or visit www.wire-india.com, www.tube-india.com, www.metec-india.com, www.iewc.in and www.mdna.com. You can also follow on twitter at http://twitter.com/mdnachicago

May 12, 2021 – Vineyard Wind has received approval from the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the final major step in the federal review process for a project that, when completed, will be the first commercial scale offshore wind farm in the U.S..

“Today’s (decision) is not about the start of a single project, but the launch of a new industry,” Vineyard Wind CEO Lars T. Pedersen said in a press release. “Receiving this final major federal approval means the jobs, economic benefits and clean energy revolution associated with the Vineyard Wind 1 project can finally come to fruition. It’s been a long road to get to this point, but ultimately, we are reaching the end of this process with the strongest possible project.”

Vineyard Wind 1 is an 800 MW project located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard The project design includes the world’s most powerful wind turbine, the GE Haliade-X, with a capacity of 13 megawatts (MW). The larger turbine capacity has allowed the project to reduce the total number of turbines from 108 to 62 while still delivering a total capacity of 800 MW to Massachusetts ratepayers. The turbine layout, which features consistent spacing of one nautical mile between turbines, was endorsed by the United States Coast Guard for transit, fishing and navigational safety. Vineyard Wind will reach financial close in the second half of 2021 and begin delivering clean energy to Massachusetts in 2023.

Southwire has previously been named a key supplier for the project. Southwire will manufacture more than 32 miles of high voltage cable at its facility in Huntersville, North Carolina. The company’s high-voltage field services team, working with local laborers, will install the cable with a projected onshore site completion by the first quarter of 2023.

Vineyard Wind LLC is a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of Avangrid, Inc. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). Since 2017, the Vineyard Wind 1 project has been through an unprecedented and exhaustive public review process that generated more than 30,000 public comments, more than 90% of which supported the project, the release said. The Construction and Operations Plan (COP) was reviewed by more than two dozen federal, state, and local agencies over the course of more than three and a half years.

The announcement of the federal approval was lauded by the participating suppliers as well as Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, U.S. Senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, Congressman Bill Keating, Massachusetts Senate President Karen E. Spilka, Speaker of the House Ronald J. Mariano, State Representative Patricia Haddad, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell and Frank Callahan of the Massachusetts Building Trades.

The release noted that. since 2017, the Vineyard Wind 1 project has been through an unprecedented and exhaustive public review process that generated more than 30,000 public comments, more than 90% of which supported the project. The Construction and Operations Plan (COP) was reviewed by more than two dozen federal, state, and local agencies over the course of more than three and a half years.

May 12, 2021 – What do the Cleveland Browns football team, The Estée Lauder Companies, Goodyear and CM Furnaces all have in common? This year each celebrates its 75th anniversary. Below, Vice President Jim Neill outlines the start of CM Furnaces—which has kept all its design and manufacturing in the U.S.—its evolution, its market broadening and where it is now. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.cmfurnaces.com

CM Furnaces was started in January 1946 by Seth Combs and James Murphy. The primary business was making coils and filaments for the electronics industry and lighting. Coils were made out of molybdenum and tungsten wire.

Both Combs and Murphy came out of the refractory metal industry and were very knowledgeable on moly and tungsten. Coils needed to be hydrogen-fired to shape, set and clean them. CM started to build its own hydrogen furnaces to support the coil business. We had some very interesting designs that attracted the attention of the three major lighting companies, GE, Sylvania and Westinghouse. At that time, CM started to build furnaces for all of them.

Word soon spread to other industries. Furnaces became a larger portion of the business. Technology was changing and the need for electronic filaments decreased slowly over time, while the furnace business continued to grow and expand.

Because we were so used to working with refractory metal wire, early on we moved into the wire industry. At first, it was moly and tungsten, then copper, stainless steel, nickel-based alloys, and titanium. These furnaces led to other uses in tubing, rod and small width sheet.

Continuous wire annealing furnaces are a very important part of CM’s business. The furnace business has grown into laboratory furnaces for all types of high-temperature research applications in a variety of atmospheres.
After 75 years, we are now in 12 major industries building both standard and custom units for a huge variety of applications. This base is a perfect platform for our continued growth into the future.

The future looks bright. The design of the furnaces continues to improve. The days of building your own are behind us. Most companies do not have the manpower or knowledge to do this. They would also be building a brand-new, 30-year-old piece of equipment, whereas we are building furnaces every day. The more furnaces we build, the more that we learn. This constantly helps us improve the product. We are looking forward to our 100th anniversary.”