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Mining Labour Issues and History – Sudbury and Global

Vale gets new blood [in Sudbury] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – August 17, 2012)

 The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The shortage of skilled tradespeople is paying off for two-dozen apprentices at Cambrian College. The apprentice millwrights and heavy-duty equipment technicians are starting work this month at Vale Ltd.’s Sudbury operations.
 
It is not unusual for Vale to hire 20-40 apprentices in a year, said Garwin Pitman, superintendent of learning and development maintenance at Vale.
 
But it is out of the ordinary to hire that many at one time, he said. Pitman was inter viewing potential apprentices Thursday just after the announcement was made in the morning at Cambrian College.
 
Mining and other industries are experiencing a shortage of skilled tradespeople, partly because there are so many new projects in development. Vale is looking to hire another three dozen tradespeople, some of them apprentices, this fall, said Pitman.

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Trial gets started over [Vale Sudbury] miner deaths – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – August 15, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The first court appearance Tuesday of Crown counsel for the Ministry of Labour and an agent for lawyers representing Vale Ltd. and one of its supervisors officially launched what is expected to be a protracted, complicated trial on charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
 
Vale is facing nine charges under the act and supervisor Keith Birnie is facing six charges after an almost yearlong investigation by the Labour ministry into the June 8, 2011, deaths of two men at Stobie Mine.
 
It only took minutes for a justice of the peace in the Ontario Court of Justice to adjourn the matter until Sept. 12, when a judge will begin hearing the case in the criminal division of provincial court. Vale and the supervisor are charged with failing to take reasonable precautions to prevent the movement of material through an ore pass at Stobie Mine where Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, were killed.
 
The men died after being overcome by a run of 350 tons of muck from the No. 7 ore pass of the century-old mine while they were working at the 3,000-foot level. Birnie is facing charges similar to the ones laid against his employer.

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Report will delve into extent of [mining sector] skilled worker shortage – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – July 27, 2012)

This article came from Northern Life, Sudbury’s biweekly newspaper.

It’s gotten to the point where mining supply and service industry companies are complaining that large mining companies are actually “poaching” their workers because they’re able to offer better pay, Reggie Caverson, executive director of the workplace planning board, said.

Keeping this in mind, the Workplace Planning for Sudbury and Manitoulin is teaming up with the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) to produce a report detailing the statistics of just how many skilled workers will be needed in the mining industry in the future.

“With what’s happening now in the mining industry and the mining services, we’re seeing this huge boom that’s occurring,” Caverson said. “I think we’re all aware of this boom that’s happening right now. What hasn’t happened is a really solid look at what that means in terms of human resources — who we need and what we need, and how many of what we need.”

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Vale accepts [Ontario labour board] decision – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 26, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Vale Ltd. officials still believe they had reason to discipline Creighton miner Mike Courchesne for his behaviour on a United Steelworkers picket line in August 2009. But the mining company says it will accept the decision of an arbitrator and give Courchesne his job back.
 
The company issued a statement Wednesday after arbitrator Wes Rayner ruled Tuesday that while Courchesne exhibited some bad behaviour, it didn’t warrant his dismissal.
 
“Although we stand by our view that Mr. Courchesne’s conduct warranted discipline — something the arbitrator concluded as well — we will follow through on the decision as directed,” Vale said Wednesday.
 
United Steelworkers Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand would like Vale to reinstate five more members fired during the year-long strike whose cases are also in arbitration.

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Arbitrator restores fire worker’s job – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 25, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

An arbitrator has given a fired Steelworker his job back. Wes Rayner has ruled that Vale Inco must reinstate Mike Courchesne, one of nine Steelworkers fired during the union’s year-long strike against the miner, provided he passes a standard medical test.

If all goes well, Courchesne should be back on the job within a month, said his lawyer, Brian Shell. Both Courchesne and his union were “ecstatic” about the decision, Shell said Tuesday afternoon.

“Right from the beginning, it was the union’s view the people fired during the strike should not have been fired, and that the company overreacted to the allegations the company believed they had,” Shell said after the decision was rendered. Nine strikers were fired for alleged misconduct on picket lines in the community during the nasty labour dispute.
 
One, John Landry, retired after the strike ended in July 2010. Steelworkers Adam Cowie and Dan Labelle have found employment elsewhere and do not want to return to Vale, said Shell.

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Contractor pinned between scoop tram, forklift – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 21, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Production was halted at Vale’s Stobie Mine on Friday after a contract worker was injured in an accident about 9 a.m. A Ministry of Labour investigator happened to be at the mine when the accident occurred and is now looking into it, ministry spokesman Matt Blajer said Friday afternoon.

The ministry hasn’t determined what happened, but Blajer said it was told the employee was standing between a forklift and a scoop tram when another scoop collided with the forklift, pinning the worker. The oncoming scoop operator “did not see the fork sticking out, and the worker was standing between the scoop and the forklift,” said Blajer.

The worker suffered a broken right leg and was transferred to Health Sciences North’s Ramsey Lake Health Centre, he said. The ministry inspector wasn’t expected to file anything official until Monday.

Vale spokeswoman Amanda Eady confirmed the accident and said the labour ministry has frozen the scene. The labour ministry was on site Friday afternoon, as were representatives from the contracting company.

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Union continues its push for mining inquiry – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 12, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

United Steelworkers Local 6500 is stepping up its call for the Government of Ontario to commission an inquiry into mining practices by printing 3,000 more postcards demanding the inquiry and seeking an appointment to meet with Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey over the summer.
 
The campaign was prompted by United Steelworkers’ investigation into and report on the June 8, 2011, deaths of Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, at Vale Ltd.’s Stobie Mine.
 
USW investigators concluded that warnings from Chenier about safety hazards in the mine, including con-c erns about excess water, wen t unheeded by Vale and ultimately resulted in the men’s deaths.
 
The Labour ministry has laid charges against the Brazil-based mining giant and one of its supervisors under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. A first court appearance on those provincial offences is scheduled for August.

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[Sudbury] 6500 prez vows to continue mining inquiry fight – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – June 24, 2012)

This article came from Northern Life, Sudbury’s biweekly newspaper.

No mining inquiry for now, premier says

Steelworkers Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand vows to continue to push for an inquiry into mining practices in Ontario in the wake of the premier’s assertion that the province is not currently contemplating such an inquiry. Thousands of postcards have been sent to Minister of Labour Linda Jeffrey, urging her to launch the inquiry.

Bertrand said he plans to continue with the postcard campaign, which was launched in April by the Steelworkers and Lougheed Funeral Homes managing director Gerry Lougheed Jr. “I’m going to continue to focus on getting the cards signed and sending them out, and pushing for this mining inquiry,” he said, speaking to Northern Life June 23. “We’re not going to stop here.”

Premier Dalton McGuinty made his statements on the subject in response to a reporter’s question after the June 22 groundbreaking ceremony for Vale’s Clean AER project. “We’re not contemplating at this time, any specific inquiry into one incident, or mining generally,” the premier said.
 
He did say that a coroner’s inquest will examine the miners’ deaths, and also pointed out that Ministry of Labour recently laid charges against Vale and one of its supervisors under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

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Steelworkers gathering support for mining inquiry – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 21, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The Ontario legislature has adjourned, but United Steelworkers Local 6500 and their supporters intend to keep the pressure on the province to call a mining inquiry.

Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand said Wednesday that more than 2,500 postcards calling for the probe were signed June 8 at the gates of Vale Ltd.’s Sudbury mines and surface plants. The date marked the one-year anniversary of the deaths of Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, at Vale’s Stobie Mine.

An exhaustive investigation conducted by USW into the men’s deaths resulted in a 200- page report with 165 recommendations, three of them key to preventing future mining tragedies, the union says. One is the call for a public inquiry into the causes of the deaths and into underground safety generally, particularly as it relates to water management.

The last mining inquiry in Ontario was conducted more than 30 years ago, led by well-known labour relations expert Kevin Burkett.

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Make work safer, crowd urged – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 21, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Twenty-eight years ago, when four Falconbridge miners were killed after a rockburst 4,000 feet underground, no one imagined Sudburians would still be marking the event today, says the president of the union to which the men belonged.

Almost three decades later, the Workers’ Memorial Day held by Mine Mill Local 598/CAW is a rallying cry for ongoing improvements in workplace health and safety.

More than 200 people gathered Wednesday at the Caruso Club to remember the four men — Sulo Korpela, Daniel Lavallee, Richard Chenier and Wayne St. Michel — who died as a result of the June 20, 1984, seismic event.

Three of the men died instantly, but St. Michel survived 27 hours while more than 50 mine rescuers worked to reach him. Sadly, the young man died minutes before rescuers could get to him. Local 598 president Richard Paquin said miners can’t “live in fear each and every day, wondering what is to come.”

But they can — and should — endeavour “over and over again … to make the safest possible workplaces for men and women.”

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Province open to mining inquiry: Lougheed – by Darren MacDonald (Sudbury Northern Life – June 13, 2012)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Joins with former mayor to call for review of Ontario’s mining industry

Two heavyweights in Sudbury’s political life are putting politics aside to fight together for a provincial inquiry into Ontario’s mining industry. Jim Gordon, a former Sudbury mayor and Progressive Conservative MPP, and Gerry Lougheed Jr., a prominent Liberal supporter, are asking Sudburians to support a postcard campaign calling on Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey to launch the inquiry.

Lougheed said he believes the province will move forward if the public shows they support it. He has printed up 10,000 postcards and would love to print up 10,000 more.

“I’m very confident the minister is open to hearing all voices on this,” Lougheed said Wednesday morning. “In fact, I think they’re giving us this window to let the public show its support.”

It has been more than 30 years since the last inquiry, and Lougheed said mining has undergone huge changes since then, including radical changes in technology that has revolutionized the way miners work, as well as ownership changes. Both major mining operations – Vale and Xtstrata – are owned by huge, multinational corporations.

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Sombre day for Local 6500: memorial to mark miners’ deaths – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 9, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The mood was sombre Friday at sunrise as dozens of Steelworkers walked from the parking lot at Vale’s Stobie Mine to the tunnel connecting them to work.

If the deaths of colleagues Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram weren’t already on their minds, a collage of photographs of the two men at the entrance to the tunnel reminded them this was a painful anniversary.

Chenier, 35, and Fram, 26, entered that same tunnel the afternoon of June 8, 2011. A few hours into their shift, the men were killed when they were overcome by a run of 350 tons of muck at the mine’s 3,000-foot level. Members of United Steelworkers Local 6500, the union to which the men belonged, were there Friday to mark the one-year anniversary of their deaths.

Union executives and activists attended all of Vale’s mines and surface plants early Friday morning, asking members to sign postcards urging the Ontario Ministry of Labour to commission an inquiry into mine safety.

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Sudbury Council backs call for [mining] inquiry – by Carol Mulligan (June 8, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Greater Sudbury Council has unanimously endorsed a motion calling on Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey to commission an inquiry into the state of mining in Ontario and the ministry’s enforcement of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

The May 29 motion has been forwarded to Jeffrey, two local MPPs and the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities, which will be asked to support it. The motion was presented by Ward 3 Coun. Claude Berthiaume at the request of United Steelworkers Local 6500. It has been calling for the inquiry since it concluded its investigation into the deaths of two men June 8, 2011, at Vale Ltd.’s Stobie Mine.

One year ago today, Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, were killed by a run of muck while working on the 3,000-foot level near the No. 7 ore pass at Stobie. The call for an inquiry was part of a 200-plus-page report the union made public in late February, which contained 162 recommendations.

On the Day of Mourning, commemorated by Local 6500 on April 28, Gerry Lougheed Jr. launched a postcard campaign calling on Jeffrey to launch the mining probe.

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[Sudbury union] Campaign calls for inquiry – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 7, 2012)

  The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Nothing will ease the suffering of two families who will mark the painful first anniversary of the deaths of loved ones in a mining accident on Friday. But an inquiry into mining practices in Ontario might provide comfort to those left to mourn for Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26.

Chenier and Fram were killed when 350 tons of muck overcame them on the 3,000- foot level of Vale Ltd.’s Stobie Mine on June 8, 2011. After a nearly year-long investigation, the Ministry of Labour laid nine charges last week against Vale and six against one of its supervisors under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Results of a Greater Sudbury Police Service investigation are in the hands of officials in the Crown attorney office in Sudbury and there is a possibility criminal charges could be laid.

But thousands of citizens in Sudbury and beyond are pressing for an inquiry that would prevent mining deaths from occurring in the first place.

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Slow pace frustrates [Sudbury] union – by Star staff (Sudbury Star – June 6, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

First they were the Fired Nine, then one of them retired at the end of a year-long strike by United Steelworkers Local 6500 against Vale Ltd. Then they were the Fired Eight, and arbitration dates were set for eight Steelworkers fired by Vale during the July 2009-July 2010 labour dispute.

Now, arbitrations are only being held for seven Steelworkers after one of them took a job in Red Lake and decided not to proceed with arbitration. Individual arbitrators, agreed upon by USW Local 6500 and Vale, are hearing the cases of the seven fired workers. But the matters are proceeding slowly through the process, said local president Rick Bertrand.

The arbitrations are being heard in the order in which the men were fired for what Vale says was improper behaviour on picket lines or in the community during the acrimonious labour dispute.

Ron Breault’s case was heard April 25 and 26, but couldn’t be concluded, so another day has been set aside for Sept. 6. Mike Courchesne’s dismissal was the subject of two days of arbitration, May 1 and 2, but the case couldn’t be concluded so a third day is scheduled for June 25.

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