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Mining Labour Issues and History – Sudbury and Global

The strike that saved lives [Elliot Lake] – by Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco (CIM Magazine – June-July 2014)

http://www.cim.org/en.aspx

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Elliot Lake wildcat walkout

Ontario government representatives 40 years ago presented research linking radiation to lung cancer at a conference in Paris, France. In the audience were several members of the United Steelworkers of America (USW), whose organization had been fighting the mining industry and the Ontario government for improved health and safety at the Denison and Rio Algom uranium mines in Elliot Lake, Ontario. In addition to a high incidence of injuries, hundreds of miners were ill or dying from silicosis and lung cancer, which the union believed was caused by silica dust.

The union representatives were shocked to discover the government had found there was another cause behind the high rates of lung cancer – radiation – and had not bothered to inform miners or to take any action to protect them. The USW members shared the news with their co-workers back in Elliot Lake, and this proved to be the last straw. On April 18, 1974, about 1,000 miners from Denison went on a three-week wildcat strike.

“I think the conference, combined with the general dissatisfaction with the occupational health and safety regulations and laws in the province at that time, caused the strike,” says Fergus Kerr, now vice-president of operations at Global Atomic Fuels Corp., who joined Denison in 1977 and became its general manager a decade later.

The strike drew the attention of the media, the public and Ontario’s politicians. Mining health and safety suddenly became a hot-button issue.

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‘Mining heroes’ inspire Sudbury artist – by Laura Stradiotto (Sudbury Star – June 21, 2014)

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

There’s more to mining then meets the artistic eye. Below the surface and into the depths of darkness lies no ordinary workplace.

What artist Oryst Sawchuk sees is not only a space rich in metals, but also a scene as impressive as the Northern landscape captured by the Group of Seven.

His latest exhibition, MiningArt, is a tribute to the unsung heroes of Sudbury’s history and a memorial to those miners killed on the job. The series of acrylic paintings and pen and ink drawings, including four new works inspired by the recent deaths in Sudbury’s mining community, are on display in Gallery 2500, a new art space located in the United Steelworkers Local 2500.

“It’s mining that actually defines us as a community,” says Sawchuk. “If you talk to anybody anywhere in the country and you say ‘Sudbury’, they say ‘mining.’”

Sawchuk set out to capture the personality and historical significance of mining in his work. Art is more than something to beautify a living room, it should make a statement, he says, and what better place to do that than a union hall. “The miners are heroes,” says Sawchuk. “They go underground in a very alien environment.”

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30 years later, Sudbury mining tragedy lingers – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 21, 2014)

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

For almost a week, Anne Marie MacInnis started and ended her day staring at four faces looking back from the middle of an eight-page flyer, lying on her kitchen table, published by Sudbury Mine Mill & Smelter Workers Local 598 in November 1984.
It’s a reprint of a report on the deaths of four men June 20 of that year at Falconbridge Mine.

MacInnis had many thoughts about Sulo Korpela, Richard Chenier, Daniel Lavallee and Wayne St. Michel leading up to Friday’s 30th anniversary Workers’ Memorial Day.

Where they married? Did they have children? Brothers and sisters? If they had lived instead of perishing in a tragic rockburst, what would their lives have been like?

Like so many others in Sudbury, MacInnis, 49, remembers where she was when news broke about the seismic event at the 4200-foot level that instantly killed all the men except St. Michel.

Members of the union of which MacInnis is the first female president, the city and much of Canada held their collective breath while mine rescuers worked 27 hours to get to St. Michel, with whom they were communicating. Tragically, the 22-year-old was killed by a fall of material 10 minutes before rescuers reached him.

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 Latest breakdown bodes ill for SA platinum miners – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – June 10, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

LONDON (MINEWEB) – As we reported here earlier, the latest round of government mediated talks between the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the platinum miners running the mines which account for 30-40% of South Africa’s platinum output, broke down yesterday and the new South African Mines Minister, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, and his team have withdrawn from the negotiations – at least for now. However platinum exports are so key to the South African economy that one suspects further efforts will be forthcoming.

With the South African government mediators ditching recent platinum strike negotiations we look at potential outcome regardless of who wins or loses.

The principal mining companies involved – Anglo American Platinum (JSE:AMS), Impala Platinum (JSE: IMP) and Lonmin (LON:LMI) have thus released a joint statement to the effect that this latest round of negotiations ‘have been dissolved without an outcome’.

AMCU’s President, Jospeh Mathunjwa issued his own statement thus: “AMCU made many concessions. We actually moved twice to make employers move closer to us,” he said, but added that the union did not compromise its demand for a 12,500 rand ($1,200) a month basic wage, which excludes allowances. And it is these allowances, which in percentage terms are quite significant, which are the key here. The mining companies have moved to say they will meet the demands for a R12,500 minimum wage by 2017, but this would include these benefits and the union says this is unacceptable and has clung to its position no matter what. It has not given any significant ground in its demands right from the start.

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Outlook for mining is about the future of jobs – by Gavin Keeton (Business Day Live – June 9, 2014)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

Keeton is with the economics department at Rhodes University.

THE platinum strike is in its fifth month. We learned last week that it has already caused a 0.6% annualised contraction of South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter. Mining production shrank a huge 25%. Manufacturing contracted, too, at an annualised 4.4%. Some of this is because manufacturers supplying the platinum mines are also being hurt by the strike. But it also reflects a deeper weakness in the economy as a whole, which was already causing great anxiety.

Since 1994, GDP has fallen in only four quarters. GDP declined for one quarter in 1998 and for three quarters in 2008-09. Both times the causes were external. This time, the contraction is entirely self-inflicted.

The social costs of the strike are huge. Religious leaders speak of hungry adults stealing from children at school feeding projects. HIV-positive mine workers on antiretrovirals have been denied access by strikers to the mine clinics where they receive these life-saving drugs. To survive, most strikers will have borrowed from money lenders at exorbitant interest rates.

Their debt repayments will swallow up any increase they gain in wages as part of a settlement. The indebtedness of the mining companies is also rising as without income, their obligations under existing loans escalate. This will reduce future profitability and so the Treasury will bear some of the long-term costs of the strike through reduced tax revenues.

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Breakdown in platinum strike talks propels South Africa closer to recession – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – June 10, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

JOHANNESBURG — Wage talks have collapsed again in South Africa’s 20-week platinum strike, the latest ripple in a cascade of bad news that has pushed the country closer to recession and threatens to trigger a major restructuring of its platinum industry.

The strike has already inflicted huge damage on South Africa’s economy, the traditional African powerhouse and second biggest on the continent. The economy declined by 0.6 per cent in the first quarter of this year, its first contraction since 2009, and there are growing fears that the decline will continue in the next quarter.

The strike by 70,000 workers, the longest in South African mining history, was a key reason for the shrinking gross domestic product in the first quarter, since mining is still a huge contributor to the economy. Without a resolution to the strike, a recession is nearly inevitable, analysts say.

Equally inevitable are the closing of mine shafts and a shift toward mechanized mining in an industry that produces about 40 per cent of the world’s platinum output.

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Platinum Price Posed For Big Rise If South African Strike Talks Fail Again – by Tim Treadgold (Forbes Magazine – June 7, 2014)

http://www.forbes.com/

Investors with a taste for precious metals will be watching the platinum market closely next week because if last ditch talks to end a five-month long strike by workers in South Africa’s all-important platinum mining industry are not successful the price of the metal could rise sharply.

That platinum has not reacted positively to the strike by 70,000 mine workers is one of the more interesting aspects of an event which has affected an estimated 40% of the world’s supply of platinum, a metal which plays an essential role in controlling noxious emissions from vehicle engines, as well having a market in the jewelry industry.

Normally, any commodity which has almost half of its supply effectively removed from the market, would enjoy a strong price response. That has not been the case with platinum, yet.

Worker, Management Stand-Off

There have been short-lived price spikes since the strike started over a claim by mine workers for a near tripling of entry level wages to around $1180 a month by the year 2017, and a mining company response which was a fraction of the claim.

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Mine rescue captain breaking barriers – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – June 4, 2014)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – It wasn’t until the wives of a competing mine rescue team gathered around Lynne Bouchard to shake her hand that the significance of her achievement really sunk in.

Bouchard, who works for St. Andrew Goldfields in Black River-Matheson, is the first female captain to lead a mine rescue team to the provincials. The provincial competition, which kicks off Thursday, is being held this year at the Dome Mine in Timmins.

“It really sunk in when all the wives of the Kidd Creek team lined up to shake my hand and tell me how it was great and an inspiration to see a female step up to the plate like that,” the 26-year-old recalled from the district championships held in Timmins last month. “It was a very heart-felt moment.”

Bouchard will be leading St. Andrew Goldfields mine rescue team against Kidd Operations (Glencore) and the five other district teams competing in the provincials. St. Andrew is representing the Kirkland Lake district while the Kidd team is representing Timmins.

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Workers flee to safe houses on South Africa’s strike-hit platinum belt – by Ed Stoddard and Nomatter Ndebele (Reuters India – May 22, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

RUSTENBURG, South Africa, May 22 (Reuters) – The chanting began around midnight, a chilling message through the cold of the early South African winter to those who had dared to cross the picket lines at platinum producer Lonmin.

“The rats must come out of their holes. We are going to kill this NUM,” the crowd chanted as it approached the home of ‘Mary’, a member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) who had kept working at Lonmin when the rival Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) was on strike.

Her real name cannot be revealed because she fears for her life. “I heard singing in the distance. I thought I was actually dreaming, but it was getting nearer and nearer,” said Mary, who spoke to Reuters at an undisclosed location.

The events she related unfolded outside her home near Lonmin’s Marikana mine on May 14, which the London-listed company had declared a “return to work day” in the hope of persuading enough people to end the crippling AMCU strike.

The 17-week stoppage, which has also hit Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum, did not end that night; AMCU members blocked roads, extending the longest and costliest industrial action in South African mining history.

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Updated: Lockerby miners being recalled – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 9, 2014)

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

First Nickel Inc. was to begin a staged recall of its workforce Thursday after the Ministry of Labour lifted the suspension of its underground operations in all areas of Lockerby Mine, except the area where two men were killed early Tuesday.

Drillers Norm Bisaillon, 49, and Marc Methe, 34, employees of Taurus Drilling Services, were killed by a fall of material, believed to have been preceded by seismic activity.

The area where the men were killed from 3 to 3:30 a.m., at the 6,500-foot level, remains under restricted access while the ministry investigates. The ministry is being assisted in that investigation by the company and by Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor, which represents production and maintenance workers at Lockerby Mine, although Methe and Bisaillon did not belong to the union.

Before First Nickel began recalling its 120 production and maintenance workers, employees were reintegrated into the worksite through a series of sessions designed to provide a safety reorientation. The company said the reorientation would reconfirm First Nickel’s commitment to providing a safe working environment for employees and contractors.

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Mine committee presses on, mindful of Sudbury deaths – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 9, 2014)

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

The deaths of two more men in a Sudbury-area mine can’t halt the work of those involved in Ontario’s Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review, says its chair.

What it can and will do is strengthen the resolve of those conducting it to continue and produce what George Gritziotis calls “deliverables” so the review can have an impact on the mining industry as soon as possible.

Gritziotis, who is Ontario’s chief prevention officer, was saddened, as so many Sudburians were this week, by news that two men were killed at First Nickel’s Lockerby Mine.

Marc Methe, 34, and Norm Bisaillon, 49, died early Monday morning after being struck by a fall of material, preceded by a seismic event, believed to have been a factor in the accident.

The men were experienced drillers with Taurus Drilling Services. Tragedies such as this one, and the death exactly one month earlier of millwright Paul Rochette, 36, and critical injury of a 28-year-old millwright at Vale’s Copper Cliff Smelter Complex, hit the community hard, said Gritziotis.

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New documentary explores South Africa mine shootings – by Nomatter Ndebele (Reuters India – May 6, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG, May 6 (Reuters) – It was like a scene from the darkest days of apartheid: South African police opening fire with live ammunition, killing 34 striking black miners demanding a “living wage” from an international firm rich in capital.

But the killings outside of the Marikana mine of platinum company Lonmin happened on August 16, 2012, almost two decades after Nelson Mandela’s “Rainbow Nation” exchanged white-minority rule for multi-racial democracy.

A new documentary “Miners Shot Down”, by South African filmmaker Rehad Desai, explores the events leading up to what has been dubbed “the Marikana Massacre”.

The film has a special resonance at the moment because most of the country’s platinum miners have been on strike for a “living wage” of 12,500 rand ($1,200) a month for the past 15 weeks and a general election will be held on Wednesday.

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Fear of reprisals stifles mine safety progress: Steelworkers – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – May 5, 2014)

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.

To improve health and safety standards in Ontario’s mines, workers must not face reprisals if they bring issues forward to management, said a member of the United Steelworkers.

Nick Larochelle, mines co-chair with Local 6500, said April 2 at the first public consultation in Sudbury as part of the Ministry of Labour’s year-long review of health and safety in the industry.

Under section 50 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act employers cannot discipline their employees for refusing to do unsafe work or bringing their health and safety concerns forward. But Larochelle said some members have been fired for complaining to their supervisors about health and safety issues.

He said employers use the guise of insubordination when they discipline workers for pointing out holes in their occupational health and safety practices. The fear of reprisals, he said, has created an environment where mining companies’ internal responsibility systems are not as effective as they should be.

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Sudbury-area MP’s comments perplex mining leader – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – May 2, 2014)

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

The president of the Canadian Mining Association says he’s perplexed by comments made by Claude Gravelle earlier this week, likening them to something you’d hear in the 1970s.

Gravelle, the NDP’s Nickel Belt Member of Parliament, is a former Inco employee and former long-time member of United Steelworkers 6500.
During Monday’s National Day of Mourning ceremonies at Laurentian University, Gravelle told the crowd – which included a number of local mining executives – he believes mining companies put profit ahead of safety.

“As we know, the bottom line in a corporate culture is their own bottom line, not first nor last the safety or lives of workers. In a culture and economy that exalts capitalism, the worker is exploited,” Gravelle, who is also the NDP’s mining critic, said. 
In an interview after with The Star,

Gravelle went further, saying he believes the profit-over-safety approach is not isolated to mining.
 “People are getting killed on the job regularly, and it’s not getting any better … they are cutting corners to save money. I worked in the mining industry for 34 years. I’ve seen it. It’s not only mining companies, it’s all companies that are driven by the profit margins. They will cut corners to make more money.”

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Elliot Lake marks National Day of Mourning – by Kevin McSheffrey (Elliot Lake Standard – April 30, 2014)

http://www.elliotlakestandard.ca/

The National Day of Mourning is aimed at remembering those workers who died on the job or as a result of a workplace accidents or illnesses. Sue Girard, a representative from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, was the master of ceremonies at the event.

She reminded the crowd gathered at the Miners’ Memorial that the Day of Mourning was created 30 years ago by the labour movement to increase awareness of on-the-job injuries and fatal workplace accidents.

The following year, 1985, it was recognized by the Canadian Labour Congress. Eight years later, the federal government also recognized the day. Girard added that the Day of Mourning is recognized on more than 80 countries.

She continued by saying that Canada has some of the best occupational health and safety laws in the world. However, workplace deaths continue to rise in Canada. “In 2012, (a total of) 977 workplace deaths were reported in Canada, a six per cent increase over 2011,” Girard said.

“Statistics published by the Association of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada for 1993 to 2013 show that during this 20-year period, more than 18,039 people died as a result of workplace accidents.”

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