Steel in My Mind - JM Llanes

Hello PYCROs!!! That means “Partner You Can Rely On” an NSC program I still remember. I’m Jose M. Llanes, Jr., but people casually call me “Jun”.
I came across Life After Steel when I arrived in Toronto late October of 2008. I’m really happy to learn that there is still a place for NSC and its next generations. To know that there are people who initiated such and there are a lot of ‘YOUs’ out there who are part of it made me feel at home in this new place.
Although this is Life After Steel, what touches me more is Life During Steel. NSC played a great role in my life which was started by my late father Jose “Joe” Llanes of Bar Mill. I can still recall by heart the pride and excitement when he hauled our family of 10 to attend the Christmas Party at his work area. It was not just a mere party but an Open-House as well. In those parties, we witnessed how diligent he was with his NSC duties, and how proud he was of his contribution to that once great company.
The values of love for work and loyalty to NSC was instilled in me during those “early childhood industrial exposures”. Those same values brought me inestimable benefits when I was then hired by NSC after graduating college. I started at FYEP HSM2 Project as an Engineering Assistant with my long-lost-supervisor, Dodo Sawit. Up to these days, I can still dredge-up the slogan I used to say to myself as I crossed HSM2’s red-hot table rollers. That was “I will also make NSC proud of me, as how NSC was proud of my father.”
Today, NSC is just a thing of our past. But for those who were once part of it, it was not just a company, it was an identity. I relate NSC to several of my life’s milestones which I love to tell my children and others as well:

• My father was able to send all 10 of us to college thanks to NSC.
• Getting hired and working for the glorious National Steel Corporation was a dream come true.
• A difficult and sad time for me was leaving my beloved NSC.
• NSC was the standard I set when I worked for a company in Saudi Arabia.
• Being recalled and going back to work for Global Steel gave me hope.
• For the second time I have to leave NSC/Global Steel.
• I am now in Canada and applying for jobs. When I do get hired, I am sure I will still be comparing them to NSC.

Those seven twists-and-turns of my life always had NSC as the central axis. I am sharing this with everyone and they are now part of this site.
More power and let the spirit and values of NSC be shared with others.

Jun Llanes