Twitter

Mining Labour Issues and History – Sudbury and Global

Charges laid in deaths of two Sudbury drillers – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 29, 2015)

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

Two companies are facing 13 charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act in the deaths of two Sudbury drillers in almost a year ago, the Ministry of Labour announced Tuesday.

Norm Bisaillon, 49, and Marc Methe, 34, died May 6, 2014, at First Nickel Inc.’s Lockerby Mine.

Eight charges were laid against First Nickel, including:

– prevention of water accumulation or flow of water that might endanger a worker;

– ensuring an effective ground support system is installed;

– requirement that a report be made in writing of all dangerous conditions;

– the examination of and remediation of misfiring explosives;

Read more

Superintendent warned about water levels – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 29, 2015)

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

A former superintendent at Stobie Mine who toured the underground facility the day two men were killed at its 3,000-foot level said he left the mine about noon with concerns about excess water and plugged drain holes.

Larry Lauzon was brought in June 8, 2011, to offer advice to superintendent Keith Birney about safety practices. Stobie routinely experiences constant problems due to water being funnelled from surface.

Stobie supervisor Jason Chenier, 35, and miner Jordan Fram, 26, were killed by a run of tons of muck on the 3,000-level. The incident is believed to have occurred about 9:45 p.m.

Lauzon testified Tuesday at the seventh day of the coroner’s inquest into their deaths that he noticed on his tour varying depths of water accumulation at several levels of Stobie’s B division, where the men were overcome by muck. He talked with Birnie, cautioning him to take water issues seriously, and spoke with workers they encountered on their tour about safe mining practices.

As he was leaving the mine, Lauzon said he looked for the mine manager to see if he was aware of water conditions in the mine.

Read more

Day of Mourning: Labour vows to ‘fight for the living’ – by Connor Pringle (Sudbury Star – April 29, 2015)

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

Workers who were killed, injured or suffered illnesses from workplace conditions were mourned Tuesday during the 31st Annual Day of Mourning hosted by The Sudbury and District Labour Council and United Steel Workers Local 6500.

The Annual Day of Mourning recognizes workers killed, injured and who suffered illnesses while on the job.

“It’s a day to make a commitment to protect the living and to prevent future injuries and fatalities,” said Alain Arseneault, co-chair of maintenance/electrical for the Health, Safety and Environment Committee.

The day started 31 years ago, according to Arseneault, with April 28 chosen as that is the date the Ontario government proclaimed the first comprehensive Workers Compensation Act in Canada.

The Sudbury region was the first region to declare April 28 as the official Day of Mourning in Canada and across the world. The Steelworkers local says 44 deaths have occurred on company property since the first Day of Mourning.

Read more

Occupational health: Workplace safety research centre opens – by Harold Carmichael (Sudbury Star – April 28, 2015)

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

In the heart of a building that is the epicentre of sports on the Laurentian University campus, cutting-edge research into workplace health and safety underway in the city for seven years finally has a place to call home.

The new Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health laboratory and research facility, which was made available by the university and consists of 1,695 square feet of laboratory space and 629 square feet of office and meeting space, officially opened in the Ben Avery building Monday.

“We are risk takers … and we are not going to stop until we get it right,” Tammy Eger, the centre’s research chairwoman and an associate professor in the Laurentian School of Human Kinetics, told more than 50 people on hand for the opening. “This centre is about community. It’s about the passion we have for health and safety…We’re going to develop the solutions, expand the knowledge and sustainability. We’re going to make a difference, not only in Northern Ontario, but nationally and internationally. This is your centre.”

The centre was established in 2008 by Laurentian to provide a formalized structure for industry, safe workplace associations, labour groups, government organizations, and researchers to share workplace injury and disease problems and solutions.

Read more

Industrial deaths: Testimony painful at Chenier, Fram inquest – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 28, 2015)

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

Day 6 of the inquest into the June 8, 2011 deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram at Vale’s Stobie Mine moved into painful and sensitive territory Monday.

After a morning and an hour in the afternoon of technical testimony by Ministry of Labour inspectors, assistant crown attorney Rebecca Bald told the inquest jury the causes of death for the two men.

Thirty-five-year-old Chenier died of smothering, compressional asphyxia and blunt-force injuries, according to forensic pathologist Dr. Martin Queen, said Bald. The cause of death for Fram, 26, was smothering and compressional axphixia, said the lawyer, one of two assistant crown attorneys acting as counsel to presiding coroner Dr. David Eden.

Members of the Fram and Chenier families have attended every day of the inquest, sitting in the front rows of courtroom A at the Sudbury courthouse.

The inquest has heard the men were overcome by an explosive and violent run of hundreds of ton of muck – broken ore, sand, slimes and water – that was hung up in No. 7 ore pass, then burst through a control gate where they were working.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: VALE AND THE UNITED STEELWORKERS REACH TENTATIVE DEAL IN SUDBURY & PORT COLBORNE

SUDBURY, April 27 2015 – Vale and United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 and Local 6200 are pleased to announce that an early tentative agreement has been reached on a new five-year contract for Production & Maintenance employees in Sudbury and Port Colborne. The new 5-year Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) will come into effect on June 1, 2015.

Details of the tentative agreement will remain confidential until the USW holds ratification meetings with its members on Wednesday April 29 and Thursday April 30.

“The negotiations process has been productive and respectful, and we are encouraged that we have been able to reach an early tentative agreement that is unanimously recommended by both bargaining committees for our members to consider,” said Rick Bertrand, President of USW Local 6500. “We endorse this deal and look forward to presenting the details to our membership as it paves the road for the next 5 years.”

“We believe we have reached a tentative agreement that appropriately meets the needs of both the company and our USW Local 6500 and 6200 employees,” said Mitch Medina, Manager, HR, Health, Safety & Environment and lead negotiator for Vale. “Both teams have worked very hard and in a spirit of cooperation to achieve the positive result we were all hoping for.”

Read more

Vale loses fight to skip daily cage inspections – by Darren MacDonald (Sudbury Northern Life – April 24, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Company argued checking safety backups daily was a waste of time

Vale Canada Ltd. has lost an appeal of a Ministry of Labour order to do daily checks of a safety mechanism on mining shaft elevators that prevent them from free-falling in case of a malfunction.

In an Ontario Labour Board decision released April 10, Vice-Chair Matthew R. Wilson sided with United Steelworkers Local 6500, ruling that inspections of the safety catches – known as “dogs” – must be done daily.

The process is known as “chairing the cage,” and it’s a procedure that mimics what happens when the elevator (cage) that carries miners underground fails and the claw-like dogs on top begin spinning, biting into the wooden timbers in the shaft and stopping the free-fall.

The danger is that the dogs can become eroded or be compromised by falling debris, meaning they wouldn’t spin and attach themselves to the wooden timbers. In their arguments, Vale said their cages have a protective “boot” on top of the cage that prevents debris from falling into the dogs. Therefore, the company argued, the weekly inspections they conduct were sufficient.

Read more

Sudbury inquest: Stobie conditions ‘very, very wet’ – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 25, 2015)

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

If he had seen conditions like those he witnessed after a run-of-muck incident at Vale’s Stobie Mine in 2011, he would have issued a stop-work order to cease production, said a Ministry of Labour mining inspector.

Will Thomson testified at Day 5 of a coroner’s inquest into the June 8, 2011, deaths of two men at Stobie that he had never seen water conditions as bad as those since beginning in the mining industry as a student in 1989.

Thomson testified before a two-man, three woman jury Friday, saying water and muck was five feet deep on one level, and sand, slimes and water mixed with broken ore covered levels of the century-old mine.

Thomson had only been “badged” as a Labour ministry inspector since March of the year Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram were killed in a run of tons of muck while working at the 3000-foot level of Stobie, near the No. 7 ore pass.

Thomson had worked for Vale for 15 years, eight of them at Stobie, in logistics on the muck circuit in the mine’s A division. He was the on-call mining inspector June 9, 2011, at 12:15 a.m., when he was contacted about the incident in Stobie Mine’s B division.

Read more

[Mining death inquiry] Muck shocked Sudbury mining veteran – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 24, 2015)

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

Mark Bardswich has worked for Vale for 20 years, but had never been to Stobie Mine until late the night of June 8, 2011.

The operations control centre supervisor at Vale’s Totten Mine, he’s a long-time member of Ontario Mine Rescue, an organization that trains and equips volunteers to respond to mine accidents and disasters.

Bardswich was awakened about 10:45 p.m. June 8, and called to an incident at Stobie Mine. He got there by 11:30 p.m. and met with other mine rescuers.

He was told three people were missing and unaccounted for. Bardswich was assigned captain of a second rescue team, and by the time it got to the 3,000-foot level, he knew two men were involved and the body of one had been recovered. Bardswich moved along the level toward the No. 7 ore pass, through sticky mud.

“Looking around, I couldn’t believe it,” Bardswich testified at the fourth day of the inquest into the deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram. The men were killed by a run of muck at the 3,000 level of Stobie Mine near the No. 7 ore pass about 9:45 p.m.

Read more

‘Something wasn’t right’ — Sudbury inquest [mining deaths] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 23, 2015)

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

Two of the last men to see Jordan Fram alive testified about their encounters with him on the third day of the coroner’s inquest into his death and that of his supervisor, Jason Chenier.

Fram, 26, and Chenier, 35, were killed about 9:45 p.m. on June 8, 2011, at the 3,000-foot level of Vale’s Stobie Mine, near the No. 7 ore pass. They were overcome by an uncontrolled run of 350 tons of muck.

There are two divisions at Stobie. Luke St. Amand was a supervisor at division A, which was sharing the no. 7 ore pass that day with division B, where Chenier and Fram were working.

St. Amant was working the day the men were killed and had met Chenier on surface. He testified Chenier didn’t say anything about water, although Chenier had sent two emails to superiors about hazards in the days before the tragedy.

He and Chenier didn’t talk about double barricades, said St. Amant, although Chenier had mentioned in his emails they had been erected to block unsafe areas, the inquest has heard.

Read more

Could have used more training: Superintendent – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 22, 2015)

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

Looking back to June 8, 2011, Keith Birnie said he would have liked to have had more training for his role as superintendent at Vale’s Stobie Mine.

Birnie had only been on the job four weeks when supervisor Jason Chenier, 35, and hourly worker Jordan Fram, 26, were killed by an uncontrolled run of muck while working on the 3,000-foot level of the mine near the No. 7 ore pass.

Earlier that day, Birnie had toured the mine with friend and mentor Larry Lauzon, a retired mining superintendent at Stobie Mine whom Birnie said was “coaching” him about safety. He invited Lauzon in “as a different set of eyes” to help him do his job more effectively.

Birnie, who now works in a different capacity for Vale, testified at the second day of a coroner’s inquest into the deaths of Chenier and Fram.

The two-man, three-woman jury heard that water was an ongoing issue at the 100-year-old mine. Because of large indentations on surface from two defunct open-pit mines, water pours into Stobie from above and seeps in from below.

Read more

Safety record at mines makes trust scarce – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 21, 2015)

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

A mining health and safety conference last week seemed far removed from the June 8, 2011 deaths of two men at Vale’s Frood-Stobie Complex in Sudbury.

In a conference room at a Sudbury hotel, Labour Minister Kevin Flynn presented the final report of the mining health, safety and prevention review with 18 recommendations to improve mine safety. One was that mining companies be required to have detailed water management programs.

The review was prompted by the deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram, who were overcome by a run of 350 tonnes of muck at the 900-metre level of the century-old mine. A mandatory inquest into their deaths began Monday.

A run of muck is an uncontrolled — and in this case violent — release of water, blasted rock, ore and sand. It engulfed Chenier, 35, and Fram, 26, as they were trying to determine what had caused the material to clog an ore pass above where they were working. According to three investigations and the counsel to the inquest coroner, the incident never should have occurred.

Read more

Sudbury mine deaths ‘should not have happened’ – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 21, 2015)

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

Before an inquest jury heard about how two Sudbury men died on the job, an assistant Crown attorney talked about how the men lived.

Susan Bruce, who along with assistant Crown Roberta Bald is serving as counsel to presiding coroner Dr. David Eden, told the two-man, three-woman jury Monday what kind of men Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, were.

The two were killed June 8, 2011, at Vale’s Stobie Mine when they were overcome by a run of 350 tons of muck — rock, water and sand — while working at the mine’s 3,000-foot level near the No. 7 ore shaft. A mandatory inquest is being held into their deaths. It is scheduled for two weeks, but could end sooner because some witnesses who would have given similar testimony have been written off the list.

Chenier, a supervisor at Stobie, was the husband of Tracy and father of two children, aged 6 and 7. He loved family activities such as fishing, hiking and skiing, and built his children “an elaborate play centre from scratch,” not from a kit at a department store, Bruce told the jury.

Read more

New dust buster initiative sounds potential death knell for silicosis scourge – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – April 20, 2015)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A spectacular new dust control system announced at a Chamber of Mines (CoM) of South Africa conference on Monday is described as the closest the industry has come to a silver bullet to put an end to the curse of silicosis and other lung diseases that have plagued the South African mining industry for more than a century.

Representatives of government, labour and business heard at the CoM-facilitated launch that the real-time airborne pollutant monitoring system is now in place to potentially bring an immediate halt to dust spikes that have posed a silent killer threat since the days of the Cousin Jack Cornish miners on the Witwatersrand in the late 1800s.

“It’s a huge step towards the progress in our quest for zero harm,” CoM adoption team manager: dust Gerrie Pienaar told the conference attended by Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online. (Also see attached video).

“It’s possibly the closest thing to a silver bullet we’re ever going to have,” the CoM Mining Industry Occupational Safety and Health dust manager Johan van Rensburg told Mining Weekly Online in a video interview. “If it’s adopted eagerly at all levels, this thing will fly,” Van Rensburg added.

Read more

Highly anticipated Sudbury inquest opens Monday – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 20, 2015)

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

Vale Ltd. officials say they can’t turn back the clock to before June 8, 2011, when two workers were killed at the company’s Stobie Mine.

But they said they hope the families of Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, find some comfort “in the significant work done since that night to ensure this kind of tragedy never occurs again.”

Vale issued the statement three days before the start Monday of a coroner’s investigation into the men’s death. Regional supervising coroner Dr. David Eden will preside at the inquest, at which a five-member jury will hear evidence from several witnesses at what is expected to be a 10-day hearing.

Vale said in its statement that the purpose of the inquest is to review the circumstances around the fatality so that future deaths can be prevented.

Chenier and Fram died after being overcome by a run of 350 tons of muck while they were working at the 3,000-foot level of the mine.

Read more