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Mining Labour Issues and History – Sudbury and Global

Fram pleased with mining review recommendations – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 15, 2015)

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

The mother of one of two men whose deaths four years ago in a Vale mine sparked a review to improve mine safety is pleased with 18 recommendations and says they will make working underground less hazardous.

Wendy Fram’s son, Jordan, 26, and coworker Jason Chenier, 35, were killed June 8, 2011, by a run of muck at the 3,000-foot level of Vale’s Stobie Mine. One of the issues identified in investigations as leading to the men’s deaths was excess water in the century-old mine.

That issue was squarely addressed in the final report of the Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review, presented in Sudbury this morning by Labour Minister Kevin Flynn and Ontario chief prevention officer George Gritziotis.

Gritziotis chaired the review, whose advisory committee was comprised of individuals from industry and labour. Fram served as a special advisor to the committee on the review that was established in December 2013.

Key recommendations in the report are to enhance ground control protection by identifying key elements to managing those hazards and require employers to maintain a record of significant seismic events.

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News Release: Ontario mining health and safety conference April 14 to 16

Workplace Safety North hosts 300 participants in Sudbury

(April 13, 2015) NORTH BAY, ON – From April 14 to 16 in Sudbury, Workplace Safety North (WSN) will host more than 300 attendees at the annual provincial Mining Health and Safety Conference. The event brings together Ontario’s mining industry, giving organizations the opportunity to share knowledge about safety programs and innovations dealing with hazards specific to mining.

“We’re in our eighteenth year and continue to focus on the occupational health and safety approach known as the ‘Internal Responsibility System,’” says Candys Ballanger-Michaud, CEO. “The focus of conference will be the final recommendations from the Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review on improving health and safety in the underground mining sector.

“Mining is a vital and technically demanding industry,” notes Ballanger-Michaud. “We have mining health and safety consultants as well as mine rescue officers providing miners across Ontario with training on topics like core health and safety principles as well as industry-specific issues. WSN mining specialists provide training with regard to mine ventilation, ground control, electrical-mechanical safety, rescue and recovery operations, priority hazards, plus we help companies assess health and safety risks and meet legislative requirements.”

In addition to workshops and a trade show, the sold-out conference features guest speakers Dr. Linda Duxbury and Kevin Burns, along with sessions on training, WSIB claims, heat stress, occupational lung disease, emergency preparedness, working at heights, and more.

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Sudbury smelter charges no surprise — union – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – April 1, 2015)

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

A committee of representatives from Vale Ltd. and United Steelworkers Local 6500 is working to ensure the 58 recommendations from a joint investigation into the death last year of a millwright are implemented and that history doesn’t repeat.

Mike Bond, chair of health and safety for USW Local 6500, said some progress has been made to resolve issues at the Copper Cliff Smelter Complex, where Paul Rochette, 36, was killed April 6, 2014, while working on an ore crusher.

Monday, the Ministry of Labour announced it had laid 17 charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act in relation to Rochette’s death. Nine were laid against Vale Canada Ltd. and eight were laid against two supervisors, and a third supervisor who was classified as a worker at the time.

The charges against Vale relate to ensuring work was done properly, that workers were educated and trained, and that safeguards were put in place to keep pieces of machines in place.

Bond said no one who knew anything about the situation at the smelter complex last year was surprised so many charges were laid.

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Vale, Sudbury employees charged – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – March 31, 2015)

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

The Ministry of Labour has laid nine charges against Vale Canada Ltd. and eight charges against three company employees in the April 6, 2014, death of millwright Paul Rochette at Vale’s Copper Cliff Smelter Complex.

Rochette, 36, died from injuries to the head after a large piston or moil operating under pressure, crushing ingots of nickel under pressure, released from an area of a processing system at the smelter.

A second man, 28, who has never been identified, also suffered injuries to the face and head. Vale has been charged under the Occupational Health and Safety Act with failing to:

– Ensure that while work was being done on the Farrel crusher, any gravity stored energy was dissipated or contained;

– Ensure that while work was being done on the Farrel crusher, all energy isolating devices were properly engaged, locked and tagged;

– Provide information, instruction and supervision to workers on a safe procedure to remove a broken moil point from the jaws of the Farrel crusher;

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Low dollar could help Sudbury miners in labour negotiations – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 19, 2015)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

A low Canadian dollar could work in the United Steelworkers’ favour as they enter into contract negotiations with Vale in Sudbury, said a Laurentian University commerce professor.

The current five-year collective bargaining agreement between the United Steelworkers Local 6500 and Vale will expire at midnight on May 31, 2015. Jean-Charles Cachon said the low Canadian dollar should give the Steelworkers more bargaining leeway when it comes to salaries.

The lower Canadian dollar decreases Vale’s operational costs in Sudbury, Cachon said. “As workers are paid in Canadian dollars, any weakening of the Canadian dollar is to the advantage of Canadians,” he said.

“It’s becoming a seller’s market in terms of the job market,” Cachon said. “There are less and less people waiting to work for the mining industry. They (Vale) are probably going to have to pay a premium for employees in the next few years.”

Cachon said he expects the Canadian dollar to stay well below parity as long as oil prices remain low. But while the low dollar might give workers more negotiating room, Cachon said he does not expect Vale to give in without a fight.

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Mining review final report near end of March – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 18, 2015)

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

A much anticipated report on improving safety in Ontario mines will be released by the end of March, focusing on challenges in the mining sector today and those anticipated tomorrow, says the province’s chief prevention officer.

It will contain some recommendations that are regulatory and require amendments to mining legislation and others that are voluntary or industry-led, directed at employers, workers, health and safety committees, and other stakeholders.

The final report will be the result of 14 months’ work including several meetings by the stakeholder advisory panel, and public and private consultations with dozens and dozens of miners, more than 90 mining industry experts and several health and safety advocates.

George Gritziotis has been leading the mining review and he said he’s pleased with the way the final report is shaping up. Last week, he was going over a draft and consulting with panel members to put the finishing touches on it.

The Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review was ordered in December 2013 by then Ontario Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi after a Sudbury-led campaign to reduce the number of mining fatalities by improving working conditions underground.

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Inquest into Fram, Chenier mining deaths called for April 8 – by Ben Leeson (Sudbury Star – January 7, 2015)

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

Briana Fram knows the coroner’s inquest into the death of her brother, Jordan Fram, and Jason Chenier will a difficult time for her family, but hopes it will result in a safer workplace for those who work in mines.

Dr. Reuven Jhirad, deputy chief coroner of the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario, announced Tuesday that an inquest will be held into the deaths of Fram, 26, and Chenier, 35, both killed at the 3,000-foot level of Vale’s Stobie Mine when they were overcome by a run of muck on June 8, 2011.

Inquests into workplace deaths are mandatory in Ontario. “With tragedy, often good emerges,” Briana Fram said. “We’re hopeful that this inquest will bring results that will prevent deaths in the future and protect the lives of miners and people that work in mines.”

Dr. David Eden will preside as inquest coroner. Susan Bruce and Roberta Bald will be counsel to the coroner. The inquest will be at the Sudbury Courthouse, 155 Elm St. in Sudbury, beginning on April 20 at 9 a.m. and is expected to last 10 days, according to the chief coroner’s office.

The inquest will examine the circumstances surrounding the Stobie accident and the inquest jury may make recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths from occurring.

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Sudbury column: Big mining still tests city’s mettle – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – December 17, 2014)

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

Philosopher-poet George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Sudbury’s largest employer and its largest trade union haven’t forgotten the past, but they are determined to leave it behind.

Last week, the president of United Steelworkers Local 6500 and the Canada/UK vice-president of Vale Ltd. held a news conference. Rick Bertrand and Kelly Strong sat side by side in the Steelworkers’ Hall, in itself significant, and signalled their intention to settle a new contract in 2015.

The former Inco and the union for production and maintenance workers historically made a show of exchanging proposals three months before a contract expired. That was all the public knew until they reached a tentative deal or the union went on strike.

Sudbury held its collective breath in contract years, getting antsy the year before. When the local had 12,000 members, the city’s economy rose and fell with its labour status. Decades of hard bargaining earned Steelworkers solid wages and good benefits, the spinoffs of which kept many of us working.

Advances in mining technology have decimated the miner’s blue-collar workforce to 2,700 members, and the city isn’t as dependent now on the labour fortunes of Vale and its union.

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Sudbury mines given hundreds of health and safety work orders (CBC News Sudbury – October 29, 2014)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury

Orders cover such areas as hoist maintenance, ventilation, and preventing water accumulation

Details of health and safety orders issued to Sudbury-area mines hint at the dangers of working underground.

The Ministry of Labour provided CBC News a breakdown of orders that have been given to First Nickel’s Lockerby Mine, Vale’s Stobie and Creighton Mines, Xstrata’s Nickel Rim South and Quadra FNX/KGMH International’s Levack mine over the past three years.

The orders cover such areas as hoist maintenance, ventilation, and preventing water accumulation. Out of the five, Lockerby Mine had the most orders, totalling more than 200. Stobie had the second highest number, at more than 180. The other three had fewer than 100 each.

​NDP mining critic and Timmins-James Bay MPP Gilles Bisson speculated on the varying number of work orders issued to the mines.

“Is it the style of management? Is it what is going on with the workers? But clearly, we need to make sure that whatever is going on there is properly dealt with,” he said. Bisson said the number and types of orders don’t provide a clear enough picture to make any quick judgments.

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Freeport’s Indonesia copper mine must improve safety or face more protests – union – by Michael Taylor and Dennys Kapa (Reuters U.S. – October 8, 2014)

http://www.reuters.com/

JAKARTA, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Workers at Freeport-McMoRan Inc’s giant Indonesian copper mine are seeking face-to-face talks with local management following a fatal accident, and may plan a further mine blockade or strike action, a union official said.

Hundreds of angry protestors blocked access for two days last week to the open-pit area of the Grasberg copper complex, where production has been halted following the death of four workers on Sept. 27. The open pit accounts for more than half of the mine’s output.

Fresh protests, blockades or strike action could be triggered if workers’ safety concerns and other demands were ignored, said Albar Sabang, a senior official at a Freeport union, potentially hindering copper exports.

“Production is important but safety is number one,” Sabang told Reuters, adding that protesting workers had demanded a meeting on Oct. 11-12 with Freeport Indonesia CEO Rozik Soetjipto. “If the demands are not met they will plan to do another protest,” he said.

The Indonesian government is investigating the accident, which involved a collision between a light vehicle carrying nine people and a haul truck, and has laid out a number of required work changes for open-pit mining to resume.

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NEWS RELEASE: Preliminary mining safety review panel report initiates early actions

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

The Ontario Ministry of Labour Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review’s progress report, which was released last week, is already leading to changes making positive impacts on mining health and safety. This panel started work in January 2014 with the target date for the release of a final report planned for early 2015.

Ontario Chief Prevention Officer George Gritziotis is leading the review, along with Fergus Kerr, industry co-chair, and John Perquin, labour co-chair. Key initiatives, which have been enacted upon already, include guidance on high visibility safety apparel by mine workers, updating joint health and safety committee certification training and advancing research.

Over the past six months, the review has held 12 public consultations, in which more than 150 people participated, and it has received more than 60 written submissions. In the key issues section of the progress report, it states “At public consultations and in written submissions, the Internal Responsibility System (IRS) was the most discussed topic. Stakeholders are unanimous in their view that an effective IRS is key to safe workplaces.”

Other Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review panel members include Roger Emdin, Manager of Sustainable Development for Glencore’s Sudbury Operations, and Mike Bond, Chair of USW/Vale Safety, Health and Environment Executive Committee.

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Occupational Safety: Progress on mine review – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – September 11, 2014)

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

It was a good day for the mining industry, but it came about as a result of tragedy. But four initiatives that go effect immediately will improve the health and well-being of workers in Ontario’s mines, says Labour Minister Kevin Flynn.

He provided an update on his government’s Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review on Wednesday at the Willet Green Miller Centre.

That came one day after Flynn paid his first visit to a mine, descending to the 5,000-foot level at Vale’s Coleman Mine in Levack. The underground visit gave him a better understanding of the safety issues miners face every day.

The progress report calls for action in four areas that “jumped off the page” for the mining review advisory panel in the eight months it has been meeting, said Flynn.

The province is setting out to improve the visibility of workers through increased promotion of high visibility apparel. That is a guideline for now, but it could be enacted into law when the final report of the mining review is presented to Flynn early in the new year.

The province is also developing a mining health database to track incidents of illness and exposure to carcinogenic substances, helping to prevent miners from being exposed to unsafe levels and assisting in the development of improved health and safety rules.

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Interim mine safety report out next week – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – September 4, 2014)

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

An interim report on how to make mining safer in Ontario — pulling together information and recommendations from experienced miners, mining experts and family members of miners killed on the job — will be made public next week.

The advisory group for the Ontario Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review will present a preliminary report Sept. 10 to George Gritziotis, the province’s chief prevention officer and the head of the review, when the group meets in Sudbury.

The report will then be presented to Ontario Labour Minister Kevin Flynn and its recommendations made public. The review was launched in December by then Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi after a campaign by United Steelworkers and a lobby group called MINES (Mining Inquiry Needs Everyone’s Support) for a full-fledged inquiry into mining safety in Ontario.

That call came after three deaths at two Vale mines in less than a year — the June 2011 deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram at Stobie Mine and the January 2012 death of Stephen Perry at Coleman Mine.

Naqvi established the review instead, describing it as a thorough, evidence-based review of mining safety in Ontario that would get meaningful results for miners and their families.

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First Nickel’s plan for Sudbury mine draws praise – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 23, 2014)

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

The owners of First Nickel Inc. have gone “over and above” standard in determining a method to allow workers to safely re-enter and return to work in the area of Lockerby Mine in which two drillers were killed May 6.

Normand Charles Bisaillon, 49, and Marc Methe, 34, were killed by a fall of material, preceded by seismic activity

The men worked for Taurus Drilling, and were not members of Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor, which represents about 150 production and maintenance workers at the mine. But Mine Mill has been involved in the company investigation into the men’s deaths.

First Nickel released a statement Tuesday saying it has been actively cooperating with the Ministry of Labour to determine a method to safely allow workers to re-enter the 65-2 level, an underfill heading, which has been closed since the tragedy.

“Although not ordered by the ministry, First Nickel suspended its underfill operations in all areas of the mine after the accident until satisfied that workers would not be put at risk,” First Nickel said in the statement.

After consulting with outside engineers, FNI developed a plan to resume work on the 65-2 level and in underfill headings, which ensures the safety of workers.

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Mine death reinforces importance of review – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 14, 2014)

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

The death of another employee at an Ontario mining company Thursday — the seventh this year — further illustrates the importance of the comprehensive Mining Health Safety and Prevention Review, says a Sudbury union leader.

A 38-year-old man who was using a loading machine to haul rocks died after being pinned under a rock about 2,700 feet below surface at North American Palladium’s Lac des Iles Mine north of Thunder Bay.

Myles Sullivan, area coordinator of United Steelworkers, said the man was a USW member and he expressed the union’s sorrow at his death, which is being investigated by the Ministry of Labour.

Sullivan said he remains convinced the mining review, started at the beginning of this year, will result in recommendations that will make mining safer for those who work in the industry, particularly if it moves into a second phase and examines safety at surface plants.

The review was established after strong lobby efforts from United Steelworkers and a citizens’ group called MINES (Mining Inquiring Needs Everyone’s Support), struck after the deaths of three workers at Vale mines in Sudbury. Both the union and MINES wanted a full-blown inquiry, similar to the one into the collapse of Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake that killed two people.

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