August 2013 - Access 9346

RAGE
against
the
Volume 13 Issue 6 August 2013
MACHINE
T
he Arbitrator for the random testing
case has stepped down. The Arbitrator claims he cannot find time in
his schedule to hear the case in a timely
fashion.
Although I simply fail to believe this
reason it is a welcome departure. In a
more recent bizarre move, the Arbitrator has suggested he should still hear the
case. This simply will not do as we have
already accepted his resignation.
The next move will be to select a new
Arbitrator. Both the Union and company
does this by mutual assent.
Once a new Arbitrator is selected the
case will move forward. We will not be
starting over but are still stuck with the
prior Arbitrator’s decisions.
We are still proceeding with the BC
Court of Appeals in mid-October. Per-
President’s
Report
— Alex Hanson,
President Local 9346
haps we will be successfully able to jam
our case into the Court system and out of
the Arbitral system.
If successful in gaining jurisdiction in
the Court of Appeals, we will move to
obtain an immediate injunction. I make
no prediction as to the success of such
venture. Needless to say, we have much
fight in us.
Thanks to all who have continued to
file grievances.
As well, we have had bargaining unit
employees complain to the RCMP about
their experiences with random testing.
If you have been held against your will,
been coerced into giving up a bodily
sample, been threatened in any way in
regards to testing, please see me at the
Hall and we will add statements and evidence to the growing criminal file with
the RCMP.
Drug Dogs Appear at
Highland Valley Copper:
A private security company with drugsniffing intimidator dogs recently performed a warrantless search of 300 construction contractors coming of Teck’s
Highland Valley Copper site.
It is absolutely stunning to see a conContinued on page 2
Get online, Get informed: www.usw9346.ca
And check us out on Facebook.com/usw9346
In this All Access 9346:
Upcoming events T-shirt order form
Poaching power
Troy Cook
Women of Steel
2
5
6
7
8
Steve Kallies The Plant Grievance Report Coffee break
Health and Wellness
9
10
11
12
13
Page 2 August 2013
www.usw9346.ca
Bonus boondoggling
President’s Report from page 1
tract company bend over backwards to
tow the company line and use Gestapo
tactics to prove their allegiance in the
new guilty-until-proven-innocent society.
Even more astounding is the use of
other private contractors to do a job normally exclusive to professional law enforcement. Is anyone even asking where
these privateers come from that violate
the rights of others? Something that even
the RCMP cannot do without a warrant!
When private police forces that work
for profit, are paid by companies that
want to violate your rights, show up
wearing black military gear using highly
trained attack dogs to find criminal activity without a warrant - you are living
in a fascist dictatorship.
Otherwise we would have our national police force defending the citizens
against corporate intrusions into our
lives. After all, the validity of the document in question is the Canadian Charter of Human Rights!
Private security forces protecting corporate rights stolen from the citizenry
while the RCMP stand around doing
nothing? Welcome to your new corporate socio-economic order!
Bonus Boondoggling:
Many members are enraged about the
cancellation of the profit share bonus
slated for this October, and for good
reason. But factoring in the total cost of
the infamous random drug and alcohol
testing regime the loss of bonus is sure
to get even the most laid back electrician hopping mad. As we shall see,
this cost is not being born by the end
consumers of our products, but by the
employees themselves as coal prices decline. To see this in action it is necessary
to examine the latest quarterly report
from our employer.
Glancing quickly at compressed information, we see spot price for met coal
down over the last few years from $320
per tonne to around $140 per tonne,
mirroring 2009 levels. The cost per
tonne produced is also down to $89 per
tonne including shipping. This is mainly
due to a cost reduction program implemented last year by Teck. Again, similar
to 2009 levels except that coal sales are
up by approx. 6 million tonnes annual
from the Elk Valley since 2009. Let me
remind everybody that in 2009 the percentage paid out was 15.33% yet our
output is %20 more in 2013!
Although these are crude metrics and
there are other factors involved, it is
easy to see that the company has more
than likely elected to cut us out of profit
sharing. Not out of desperation to save
the company per say, but likely because
coal prices have dropped significantly
from over inflated levels in the past, giving us the illusion of corporate poverty.
Will we buy it?
But even more suspect is the new target for cost reduction announced within
the company: the haul truck drivers in
the coal division. I will explain the company logic and their strategy below. But
first I openly question the validity of pinning the financial future of the company
on the performance of the least experienced employees and the effect it will
have on the safety of our most vulnerable members. Keep this in mind as we
explore the financial architecture of the
company herein.
Analysis of Q2 Results
As mentioned before, spot price is
now approx. $140 per tonne with about
40% of the 26 million tonnes (Mt’s) we
produce annually being spot sales leaving 60% contract sales. Teck believes
the market is bottoming out as total
volume for our sales are still rising from
approx. 20Mt’s sold in 2009 to current
26Mt’s with no sign of declining. China’s growth is slowing but total tonnes
are still rising to meet steel production
demand. Barring some bizarre economic twist, China will remain a net importer. If we divide global demand into
China and everybody else we see the
total for everybody else is declining by
a few points, while China’s increasing
demand keeps overall demand in the
positive. China’s reserves are currently
Continued on page 3
Upcoming
USW
Events
Shop Steward
Meeting – August
29 at 4:30pm
General Membership Meeting on
September 17 —
5:30 p.m.
International Elections — Nomination Meeting, September 17 — 8:30
a.m. and 8:30 p.m.
Safety Rep Meeting
– September 23 at
4:30
www.usw9346.ca
Page 3
Pulling apart the Q2 numbers
low and the price is low, so perhaps we
might see a short term boost in sales as
China goes on a buying spree.
On the competition side of things,
Mozambique is still having transportation issues and quality control issues.
There is also a violent political struggle
brewing between corporate interests
and the indigenous population, causing
some companies to fire sale their Mozambican assets. Mongolia still lacks
infrastructure and the government is still
bent on keeping major resource profits
to raise their people into the first world.
This scares away all but the most socially responsible corporate investment as
greedy corporations flee, cutting off the
start up capital. Australia’s cost to produce has been relatively high which has
been successfully blamed on unions.
Several disputes at ports have disrupted
shipments. The Australian dollar has
weakened somewhat but not enough to
offset costs. Look for Australian producers to use computer automation to replace the volatile labour market as a solution, perhaps helping profit margins of
companies but not the host population.
Producers in the USA also have relative-
ly high costs to market. Because of the
strength of the US dollar compared to a
declining Canadian dollar the sun still
shines on the Elk Valley because we are
basically the highest quality met coal at
one of the lowest costs to produce.
It is simply a last man standing scenario for met coal producers as market
prices contract to meet demand. Several
closures have already taken place, mostly in Australia and the USA. In fact, an
estimated 40 million tonnes of the total
+200Mt’s seaborne trade have been cut
from the market. That’s 20% total reduction and near double what we produce.
Teck is delaying Quintete’s opening as
a result.
While Japan remains the world’s
top importer of met coal, China’s steel
production drives price and demand.
Basically put, production is naturally
being curbed by default as sale price
approaches cost to produce. This means
that only the lowest cost producers will
survive. The corporation with the biggest
margin during times of decline stays on
top, so look for companies to implement
“cost saving” measures either through
reducing labour costs or other efficiency
schemes.
I must admit that top executives in the
company have, due to great skill and
luck, positioned the company very well
within the markets. But I now openly question the latest cost reduction
scheme briefly mentioned in their Q2
report to investors..
The Deerfoot 500
Ian Kilgour, Executive Vice President
and Chief Operating Officer, states in
Q2 report to investors:
“… really looking at where we can
continue to improve our productivity in
our unit processor; a real focus on truck
haulage productivity, which is a key cost
for us in our coal mines…”
While cost cutting measures are discussed ‘across the board’, haul trucks
are bizarrely singled out. In fact, the
statement is actually post mortem. I
have already been receiving reports
from truck drivers and safety reps about
the new tactics used by supervisors to
try and increase output.
Apparently computers in dispatch are
monitoring each haul and identifying
Continued on page 4
Page 4 August 2013
www.usw9346.ca
Your hard-earned perks pissed away
the slowest truck on each run. These are
added up and calculated and a report
is generated for dispatchers and supervisors. Some dispatchers have begun
texting these truckers over the Wenko
about their performance as supervisors
use cameras to monitor trucks at shovels for blind-side spotting. Supervisors
are pulling the slower drivers and others
who are not self spotting on the blind
side off their trucks in an effort to “find
out why”.
Supervisors have been suggesting at
tailgate meetings that if production does
not increase then there will be layoffs.
Senior managers have begun appearing
at safety meetings and telling haul truck
drivers to drive faster, especially empty
across dumps and pit floors – all while
emphasizing the fall in coal prices. In
another bizarre twist, haul truck drivers
have been sent to Greenhills and other
sites to apparently learn best practices,
grievances pending. The only thing
missing are direct threats to employees
and cattle prods. This is simply the old
carrot on the stick except there is no carrot, only a stick!
This, in my opinion, has the potential
to end in disaster as the slowest drivers
are continually pressured to go faster
until they are no longer the slowest, the
next slowest driver is identified and pressured, etc, etc – until people quit and/
or something bad happens. And when
something bad happens, the drivers can
be blamed for driving too fast.
Even more ridiculous is the notion this
is plan has been pitched to investors to
keep the company viable in today’s volatile markets. Remember, these are the
least experienced employees with the
lowest seniority basically being pressured to increase production or face loss
of employment. Perhaps the top heavy
and cumbersome middle management
and all their goffers should be looked
at first! Perhaps senior foremens actual
performances should be examined as
they leave messes for other senior foremen on other crews in a vain attempt
to show their masters how aggressive
they are. Dozers being directed to push
coal in one direction on one crew and
ordered to push in another direction on
another crew. Perhaps the people actually doing the work should be consulted
rather than feeling intimidated!
Have a Pi$$ on U$
We need to ask ourselves: what happened to our bonus if all we are is simply back to 2009 profitability levels
when we received a 15% payout? Now
we need to ask the question: how much
does the new random drug and alcohol
testing policy cost, and who is really being saddled with the financial burden?
To find out we have used some more
crude mathematics to come up with an
approximate dollar figure to see where
that cost got shifted.
If Elkview produces 6 million tonnes
per year at an average of $150 per tonne
in 2012, subtract $89 per tonne cost to
produce we have roughly $366 million
left over. If you divide $366 million by
the number of bargaining unit employees (the ones actually doing the production work) and their hours per year we
come up with roughly $200 lost profit
per man hour. 2hrs a test equals $400
average per person per test at 3 tests a
day is $1200 in lost profit. Add in the
testing kits times 3 we are up to $2700
per day, the cost of sending them away
to the lab is $2000 per day, add in the
cost of staffing another $300, another
$200 for administration, we won’t even
add the cost of low morale on production or foremen not doing their real jobs,
lost time for non-negative prescriptions
est $300 day, cost of 3rd party medical
review officers $500 a day. That’s $6000
per day at 365 days a year plus legal (estimated $150,000 so far) is a whopping
2.34 million dollars! Divide that by 850
bargaining unit employees and you get
$2,752.94 per person… This does not
even reflect the cost of the staff or contractors being tested either.
If you want to know where your bonus
went then look no further than the piss
cup itself. We simply pissed it away! Do
you feel safe yet? And how do you like
having to pay for the violation of your
own rights while our CEO gets compensated over $10 million in 2012?
Even more dubious is the conditions
under which all this bonus hoopla started. Management at Fording River told
their bargaining unit employees there
would be no bonus back in July, well
before the closing date of September 30,
2013. Why would the company start its
own rumor months before they could
even give a straight answer? And when
workers in the Valley are upset about it,
why are they being told, “if you don’t
like it here then go somewhere else”?
I have spoken to Elkview management
about this and they have declined to
comment.
Has it come down to this, encouraging employees to leave? I wonder if this
is another brilliant cost cutting measure
not openly discussed in Teck’s Q2 report:
treating employees so poorly they quit,
avoiding layoffs which would pound an
already slumping stock price, all while
pumping millions into programs which
break the law and force workers to violate their own rights.
Through senior management, this
company has communicated to workers that it will never attempt to compete
with the tar sands for wages. I would
think the oil companies are far more
grateful for all the free training done in
these mines, as we force our best and
brightest up north in search of dignity
and self respect. Sons and daughters of
current and former employees denied
employment because they do not have
any mining experience? Off to the contractors they go, then brought onto mine
property doing bargaining unit work
without being in the bargaining unit. Besetting father against son, mother against
daughter. The community divided, a
union in trouble.
In closing, I suppose we could speculate further on the logical ramifications
of this trend if it were to continue into
the extreme. As the poor company complains it cannot find enough workers
and has to again turn to the Temporary
Worker Program to find people willing
to work under any conditions for any
wages, even on haul trucks.
— In Solidarity,
Alex Hanson
www.usw9346.ca
Page 5
Flickering thoughts
B
rothers & Sisters, Well, it’s been
long overdue for another addition of
some random thoughts from another
fellow union brother.
How the time has passed and I’m still
seeing and hearing the voice of union
members battling for a better tomorrow
for all, and not for just a few bootlickers.
I applaud their efforts and the struggles
as they continue. It’s a battle that always
should be there in our hearts till justice
wins equality for all.
It’s amazing to see the company, time
and time again, display their true colors.
The latest display being the urgency to
increase the speed of drivers, in order to
achieve their ever so important and increasing production targets at all costs. To
have any representative from the company preaching production at a safety meeting is appalling.
The always unclean washrooms in the
pits just keep on going like a zit on a teenager. WOW! Sort of a parallel to how they
treat and talk to us like teenagers in junior
high.
Don’t kid yourself, this company works
equally hard at encouraging whistleblowers, just as hard as it does bootlickers.
Hilarious is the latest attempt to try
and find a way to reward a few workers,
rather than all workers. Those isolated few
felt their wage, in reflection to rest of the
valley in their position, didn’t reflect parity. The company felt that buttering up to
a few was the Right Thing To Do. If the
company feels so generous as to open the
CBA, well how about parity for all in the
valley! That would be a great start. But
that also means an equal carbon foot--busing---print.
The latest weather in the valley shows a
reminder of how quick one can become
vulnerable to a violent and irrational
storm. I hope for some of our members
directly affected a speedy recovery.
Storms in a different sort are storms at
the mine. These storms seem to come
and go, just as the newest or latest brain
wave from a new boss arrives at the mine.
Seems lately the storms are more frequent,
Guest writer
— Devin Macdonald,
Board trustee
as the company seems to be thinking all
this strategy works. I give them credit
they do work very hard at their continual
schemes. They are also right, all workers
really want is to go home each and every
day, sometimes sooner than later.
I encourage you all, Brothers & Sisters,
this is not the time to be scheming and
trying the latest, greatest brain wave on
an individual scale, like the company
tries so many times to much frustration.
I challenge our members to become a
united voice, to speak up at the meetings,
to get involved, to encourage others and
to remember that we all matter equally.
This company needs to learn strength is
not achieved through showing force, but
by enjoying their workers. Then together,
we & the company would realize we have
the best workers this company can attract. Rewarding people and providing a
fair, honest living and peace of mind - the
company would still continue making a
profit. But most of all, they really need to
start encouraging us all to enjoy work. It’s
called a community spirit. A spirit that has
been eroded by whistle-blowers & bootlickers. As long as the company rewards
only a few of us they fall becoming their
own worst enemy. First, they will spend
millions trying to force us to understand
their schemes, trickery and fake trust.
Some work for a short time, just fooling
them into spending more money. The
harder they try, the more the company
will spend and fail. Then as unrealistic
goals and demands blow up in the company’s face, they change the boss thinking
that might work. It all depends on how
much they are willing to spend before
they might realize this vicious cycle. At
the end of the day they need us, the united
front, to handle all their storms, even the
ones they create themselves. It seems they
have forgotten what created their success.
Teck needs us in their self-created darkest hour. Brothers and Sisters, we need to
show them the way to get back on track
and stop this insanity of dissecting and
tearing the workers apart.
— In Solidarity
Devin MacDonald
Page 6 August 2013
www.usw9346.ca
Poaching the people’s power
O
ur corrupt provincial government is currently trying to steal
BC Hydro by saddling it with
debt, raising electricity rates, imploding
the company, and giving away the pieces
to their corporate buddies. But how will
these corporate crooks get away with it?
To figure it out we need to look back in
time.
Back in the 1960’s BC’s premier at the
time (W. A. C. Bennett) decided that all
BC families should have electricity. BC
Hydro was then created. The idea was
simple: use taxpayer funds to create
massive power generation projects to
produce and distribute power, selling the
excess to the world market for a profit.
BC families would get cheap power and
the government would make money
to build roads, schools and hospitals.
Government could tax less; businesses
would gain advantage by having cheap
power and industry flourished as a result.
Running power to homes in rural BC
meant families could spend less time
with chores and more time living, working, playing and learning. Reliable heating, hot water, light and power meant the
automation of cooking and cleaning devices creating more time and liberating
women from the house. More women hit
the workforce and GDP increased, bringing BC into the first world. This would
be even more important once personal
computers and Internet arrived, connecting BC to the rest of the world. But once
it was built and had become so valuable,
corporations coveted the people’s wealth
and funded a political party to help steal
it.
By 2001, the ruling NDP party had
become bloated, making fiscal mistakes,
giving the corporate funded “Liberals”
their chance. By 2002 the new “Liberal”
corporate government was already selling the idea of Independent Power Projects to the people of BC. Much like the
name Liberal, these Independent Power
Projects would not make the people of
BC more independent. In fact, the “Liberal” government would force BC Hydro to
purchase power from these IPP’s by contract, even though we did not need the
power. Worse yet, BC Hydro is forced to
buy this power at inflated rates, 3 times
market value and 10 times what it costs
to produce itself. It doesn’t take a rocket
scientist to figure out that this would lead
to bankruptcy.
So now in their 4th term the “Liberals”
are running around in the media complaining about BC Hydro being a drain on
our economy. Our MLA and Energy Minister Bill Bennett (no relation to W.A.C.)
is constantly in the media shit talking BC
Hydro and threatening to raise electricity
rates because BC Hydro has been mismanaged. Remember, it was the “Liberals” who saddled BC Hydro with bizarre
contracts that would make it go broke.
Now broke we are and BC residents will
soon be offered a choice: pay more for
power or give away BC Hydro to private
interests who supposedly know how to
run a business.
But it gets worse. We won’t just lose the
power generating capacity of BC Hydro;
we will also lose the people’s power distribution network in the process. This becomes more important when we begin
to actually become independent producers of power ourselves, with solar panels
on our roofs and wind turbines on our
farms. If the grid remains the property of
the people then we will be able to trade
power freely between us – a true democratic power system. If we give away the
grid, then we will have to pay to use the
system at best, or, at worst the “company
policy” will be that we can’t share energy at all.
Corporate interests are already preparing for the privatization of the grid. A
massive solar farm is being built on Teck’s
Sullivan mine property to take advantage
of this coming change. Currently, we the
people own the power system through
our elected officials so Teck technically
buys power from us. If we let our elected
officials give away our system then we
could end up buying power from Teck,
or worse yet their buddies at the China
Investment Corporation.
Call your MLA and Energy Minister
Bill Bennett at 250-417-6022 or email
at bill.bennett.mla@leg.bc.ca to express
your displeasure. Challenge him to do
for BC Hydro what he has done for the
backcountry in Kootenay East. Save BC
Hydro!
— Alex Hanson
www.usw9346.ca
Page 7
Hydro Tales Vol. 1
O
n July 26th Energy Minister
and shootin’ from hip political
membrane Bill Bennett rolled
out the East Kootenay Energy Diet. “The
Energy Diet is an exciting new way for
East Kootenay residents to save energy
and money.” WTF you say? WTF indeed.
This brilliant new program is a softener
to the real punch in the liver the Liberals
are soon to rollout at power plant near
you. Their mismanagement and underfunding of BC Hydro and the force fed
Independent Power Projects (IPP) program combined with the Liberal’s gluttonous desire to fuel risky mega projects
spells rate hikes for consumers. Some
analysts are saying rates need to go up
35%-40% to address the Liberal’s current misadventure. Part two of the plan,
once consumers flip out at the increas-
Grievances
of watch our hair fallout from fracked
tap water by candlelight.
W. A. C. Bennett’s government created BC
Hydro in 1961. Christy Clark
— Troy Cook,
has assimilated herself with W. A. C.
Grievances/WCB committee chair during the election debate and her recent by-election in Kelowna. I guess if
es, the Liberals will suggest privatization
one is willing to destroy a great legacy
of BC Hydro. Let us sell off your utility, one gets to absorb the soul of that junca utility that has helped BC fund pro- ture, like a Vampire on a fat hillbilly.
grams, prosper and given the citizens of
So as the Wild Bill East Kootenay EnBC low power rates, to our buddies who ergy Diet barbecues get doled out and
might give you a better deal on your the masses flock to hear all about savpower bill. ing energy, let’s hope attendees rememThe IPP contracts forced on BC Hydro ber, while they’re bent over the Liberal
will cost $55 billion. Site C dam pro- dumpster eating a free sleaze burger,
posals are set to give the Liberal’s LNG old Billy is standing behind them greasbuddies power at below cost rates while ing his mitt, getting ready to plunge into
rates for the citizens of BC climb to nose their back pocket for a fistful of dollars.
bleed elevations. The two percenters get
— In Solidarity
to hot tub in champagne while the rest
Troy Cook
Page 8 August 2013
Fundraiser
in the bag
W
OS Back to School Backpacks campaign is almost
complete. We would like to
thank EVERYONE this year who participated.
We were able to raise $3,745 so far
with some individual donations still
coming in. We also collected a few
supplies. We are supplying 61 packs
full of school supplies to needy kids
this year in Sparwood, Fernie, Elkford
and the Crowsnest Pass.
Also some schools in these communities have requested some bulk donations of supplies that we are providing
as well.
We filled all the packs on Thursday,
August 22 after our Women of Steel
Meeting. All the packs will be delivered the week of August 26 in time for
the kids to go back to school on September 3.
This was another very successful
campaign. Everyone who helped out
should be extremely proud of themselves knowing that you have put
smiles on kids faces and given them
confidence as they start their first day
of school!!!!
What a great thing to do. The need
is just so overwhelming it is almost
hard to make sense of. It makes us
grateful for everything we do have and
feels so good to be able to give back
to our community. We can’t thank you
enough for all your help and contributions.
We know that in August it is hard
to think about Christmas but we have
scheduled our date for the Annual Children’s Christmas Party. It will be held at
the Sparwood Rec. Centre again and
will be on Sunday, November 24, 2013.
In Solidarity,
The Women of Steel
“To Listen; to Help; to Speak; to
Empower, in our work, home and
communities.”
www.usw9346.ca
Women of
Steel
— Sarah Thompson, Jen Schlender,
WOS Co-Chairs
www.usw9346.ca
Page 9
Celebrating the hard work
that built this country
O
n Labour Day, we celebrate the
many contributions of working
people who helped to build our
country and its economy. Despite negative comments about unions from some
business groups, we do make a positive
difference in the health of our communities and the lives of business owners.
We call this the union advantage.
The Canadian Labour Congress released a research study last year showing that on average unionized workers
in Canada earn $5.11 an hour more than
non-union workers. That extra money in
the pockets of individual workers means
the union advantage is worth a cumulative $793 million per week that is added
to our economy, and it represents a gain
for local communities and small businesses as well.
Their research study highlights 29
separate communities across the country to show the benefits that unionized
workers provide. They have found that
centers with more union members enjoy relatively higher incomes overall
and support a richer mix of businesses
and services -- dentists, chiropractors,
therapists, health specialists, family lawyers. These services benefit everyone.
In short, these communities are better
places to work and live.
Belonging to a union is especially important for female workers. They have
found that 53 per cent of non-union
women earn less than $13.33 an hour,
compared to just 6.4 per cent of women
who belong to unions. So the next time
someone says union workers make too
much money, ask them if they would
prefer their mothers, daughters, sisters
and aunts to make less than $13.33 an
hour for their labour. Unionized workers
are more likely than non-union workers
to have access to workplace pension
plans, drug and dental plans.
Health and
Safety
— Steve Kallies,
OH&S Chair/JOHSC Co-Chair
This means that millions of children
have proper dental and vision care. Their
parents can more easily afford to enroll
them in camps and sports programs and
later send them off to college and university. But the union advantage doesn’t
belong just to union members. All workers share in what union members have
fought hard to achieve — better wages,
good benefits and safer workplaces.
When unions stand up for fairness,
they raise the bar for everyone. That is
why, for example, the Canadian Labour
Congress is working to convince governments to improve Canada Pension
Plan benefits. They want to make sure
that every retired Canadian — whether
or not they belonged to a union — will
receive a livable $24,000 a year from
CPP. It can be done and it’s only fair.
Decent wages and pensions mean
prosperous
communities
because
unionized workers spend most or all of
their paycheques close to home. For this
reason, we find it odd that some people
and organizations who claim to speak
for small business are supporting proposals that would make it more difficult
for people to join unions.
The International Monetary Fund
and the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development have
confirmed that broadly-based collective bargaining is the best mechanism to
build a healthy middle class.
In short, when workers, through their
unions, are able to bargain freely for
decent wages, benefits and pensions,
there are benefits for society as a whole.
Unionized workers help to build a
stronger middle class and a stronger
economy for everyone.
For generations, Canadians and our
governments have understood the value of unions and of free collective bargaining.
Unfortunately, our current federal
government and some provincial governments want to ignore both history
and the facts and turn back the clock. All
of this should trouble Canadians whether or not they are unionized workers.
There is a direct relationship between
attacks upon unions and the growing income gap in our society and the quality
of life every Canadian deserves. Local
businesses that benefit from the union
advantage will also suffer if wages fall or
remain stagnant.
On this Labour Day we hold our
heads high as we salute the contributions of ordinary working Canadians.
Behind every successful private business, entrepreneur or public service,
there is a group of dedicated workers.
This is a day to say thank you to the 95
per cent of Canadians who work for
someone else, but who also strive for a
fair and prosperous Canada.
We would like invite all of our workforce, your families, your friends and
your neighbors to attend the 1st annual
Labour Day Celebration being held
Monday, September 2nd. The Celebration will take place at the new splash
park, adjacent to the Aquatic Centre in
Fernie from noon until 3pm. We will
have a free BBQ and entertainment.
Hope to see you all there.
For more details please call the Union
hall @ 250 425-0131
— In Solidarity
Steve Kallies
Page 10 August 2013
www.usw9346.ca
Backing up a step forward
T
his month we have seen some
success in safety at the plant.
For years it has been common
practice for the refuse haul truck, when
fueling, to back up several hundred feet
to the plant lube Island.
This practice is in direct violation of
Elkview’s SP&P regarding the maximum distance for reversing in a haul
truck by a long shot.
Overlooked and accepted by management and workers for many years.
As we see almost every incident on
site being blamed on the worker for
‘not following procedure’ it seems odd
to me that we willingly do these things.
We break safety rules for a variety of
different reasons.
Some have never been trained properly and do not understand the risk.
Some know the rules but find it easier
to do things their own way; necessity
is the mother of all invention. Others
seem to need a pat on the back from
their supervisor. What they don’t always realize until it’s too late is that
1000’s of ‘favors’ won’t mean shit when
they have an incident. If ANY SP&P is
not being followed – You are found to
be at fault.
I am happy to report that the serious issue with the plant lube island
approach has been rectified. Refuse
The Plant
— Dennis Gandner
JOHSC Plant Chair
haul trucks can now fuel without any
violation of SP&P’s and better still, risk
to other workers has been eliminated.
This is a success for all of us.
Even with this success many other
unacceptable conditions are on-going.
The quantity of dust we allow in the
dryer should no longer be acceptable
to us.
We keep hearing about grand plans
to solve this issue.
All we need to remember are the incidents at Greenhills. Remember that
dryer exploded? Why are we even toying with this issue? We do not need
any more band-aids; we need a longterm solution.
The final issue we can no longer accept is the delayed installation of the
safety platforms on the discharge end
of the refuse screens. Without these
platforms, workers are at risk of falling
onto a fast moving belt. Again we see
a band-aid instead of management’s
commitment to a long-term solution.
I would like to remind everyone of
your individual right to refuse unsafe
work. It’s not up to you to prove the
situation is unsafe; it’s up to the company to prove to you it is safe. DO NOT
put yourself in harm’s way.
For any issues regarding Health and
Safety, please feel free to contact me,
OH&S Chair Steve Kallies, the Union
Hall or utilize the mail box in the weld
shop by the stairs.
— In Solidarity,
Dennis Gandner
Plant JOHSC
www.usw9346.ca
Page 11
Grievance report update
Grievances for 2012….
• 44/12 – Overtime –In conjunction
with TC55/12, AH65/12, AH74/12,
and JK102/13 – Arbitration scheduled
for November 22 in Fernie.
• 45/12 – unjust drug test in conjunction with 58/12 and 66/12– referred to
arb
• 68/12 – Policy – Random D&A Policies – Injunction denied May 9
• 76/12- unjust discipline – waiting for
first stage response – sent proposed resolve to Company May 8. Waiting for
response.
• 77/12 – unjust drug test – referred to
arb
• 78/12- Policy A – Drug Test – in abeyance
• 80/12 – unjust search – referred to arb
• 105/12 – Discipline – waiting 2nd
stage meeting
Grievances for 2013…
• 18/13 – Policy – Contractors at Plant
– in abeyance
• 36/13 –Drug Test – waiting for second
stage response
• 37/13- Discipline – waiting for second stage response
• 47/13 – Policy C– Drug Test – No
Shop Steward – waiting for third stage
meeting
• 74/13 – No Shop Steward – waiting
third stage response
• 79/13 –Seniority – waiting for second
stage meeting
• 95/13 – Training hrs/pay – received
second stage response.
• 108/13 – Stat Pay – not asked to work
stat. less senior Dozer operator operated loader – waiting second stage
meeting
• 121/13 –vacation – on June 6 we responded to Co. letter stating that we
accepted their offer to grant vacation
but we have issues with language in
letter. Waiting for Company’s response.
• 125/13 – hot change –waiting for second stage meeting
• CB126/13 – hot change –waiting for
second stage meeting
• 131/13 – job placement – waiting for
second stage meeting
• 132/13 – job placement – waiting for
second stage meeting
• 150/13 – discipline – waiting for second stage response
• 160/13 –Vacation –June 6 we responded to Co. letter stating that we
accepted their offer to grant vacation
but we have issues with language in
letter. Waiting for Company response
• 162/13 –Final discipline – in abeyance
• 163/13- Policy –waiting third stage
response
• 174/13 –discipline- waiting for first
stage response
• 184/13 –Discipline - waiting second
stage response
• 202/13 –Discipline – waiting for third
stage response
• 205/13 – Discipline - waiting first
stage meeting – in abeyance
• 207/13 – Discipline – waiting for second stage meeting
• 220/13 –– Discipline - Waiting for
second stage response
• 221/13 Vacation – on June 6 we responded to Co. letter stating that we
accepted their offer to grant vacation
but we have issues with language in
letter. Waiting for Company response
• 222/13 –Discipline - waiting first
stage response
• 236/13 – Disc. – Training Taken away
– waiting for second stage meeting
• 239/13 –Post incident – no shop
steward before test - waiting first stage
response.
• 258/13 – Policy – waiting third stage
meeting
• 303/13 – Discharge –arbitration
scheduled for November 25 and 26 in
Fernie
• 321/13 – Policy – No lunch break on
Election Day – waiting for third stage
response
• 343/13 – unjust discipline – waiting
for first stage response
• 355/13 – Drug Test – waiting third
stage response
• 378/13 – Welders OT – Policy – waiting third stage meeting
• 427/13 – Forced OT at Plant – Waiting first stage meeting
• 429/13 – unjust discipline – waiting
first stage meeting
• 458/13 – lunch breaks – Policy –
waiting third stage meeting
• 460/13 – unjust discipline – waiting
first stage meeting
• As of July 31, 2013 we filed 206 Individual and 235 Group Random D&A
grievances.
— In Solidarity,
Troy Cook
Grievance/WCB
Committee Chair
D Crew did a 50/50 draw to raise money for the Back to
School Campaign. Congratulations to Stuart Smith who
won the draw and a great big thanks to him for donating
the winnings back to us. A total of $250 was raised.
www.usw9346.ca
Page 13
SHUT YOUR BIG YAP
No, never ... always ask questions, it’s your right
O
ur job is to make sure we go
home to our loved ones. We
watch our backs and the backs
of our brothers and sisters.
The company’s job is to protect us by
preparing and arming us with all means
possible with training and confidence.
Knowledge is power, and they both will
keep us alive.
Sometimes we need to remind them
about safety. They are human and may
forget, but they also may turn a blind
eye in the name of production.
Sometimes a lead-hand or a foreman
with a green hardhat (which I believe
they should wear) is more dangerous
than a green-hat truck driver.
Sometimes they are pushed from
people above them, and they rush
trying to get work done so they don’t
catch the wrath of their boss. While
doing this they push the hourly people
and demand unsafe work to be done.
This is when we stand up and say NO!
Sometimes they just need a friendly reminder.
It is your right to always
question how things are going to be done. Ask the
tough questions, don’t
be an ass, just always
ask for clarity.
Like in a marriage,
communication should
always be your
number
one
priority. Sometimes it feels
like we see
the
boss
more
than
our
better
halves.
Never be
the quiet one,
Photo courtesy of
freedigitalphotos.net
Health and
Wellness
— Terry Sideritsch
B-Crew Safety Rep
safety works best when all lines of communications are open.
You could work at the plant, in a shop,
the pits or the road crew. There are dangers in all locations. If you refuse to do
some work because you feel it is not
safe, the next person asked to do the
job must be notified that you wouldn’t
operate the equipment or do
t h e
job because you thought it was not
safe. When you refuse the work the supervisor must investigate the matter and
ensure that it is safe and then inform the
person who refused the work that it is
safe.
So please everyone, keep asking the
questions and don’t let them tell you to
‘shut your big yap’. You must respect
them as you talk to them and they must
show you the same respect.
There are safety reps on all crews,
talk with them but Safety reps are not
there to do all your dirty work, they can
go with you and talk to staff and help
out. They are there to help and assist so
use them accordingly.
The more people that question safety the more likely things will get safer
and better choices will be made by the
company. If everyone asks one safety
rep to ask all the questions the company will label that person a problem. Soon the company finds that
person to be a thorn in their side.
Speak up; let your voice be
heard. If you don’t, who will
for you? If you want things to
change then things need to be
done different. Maybe you are
too shy to speak up, write a letter and email it to your supervisor, along with your safety rep
and the union hall. Every staff
person on the mine site has an
email address. Things in writing
are hard to deny.
In Closing, Never Ever…. Shut
Your Big Yap.
— Terry Sideritsch
B-Crew Safety Rep
DEADLY FIGHT FOR
Page 14 August 2013
D
Not so long ago, the eight-hour work day and workplace safety
were just a worker’s dream
riving a dusty road back to Fernie from a reunion picnic at
the long-vanished Crowsnest
Pass mining camp of Coal Creek in the
south eastern corner of the province,
I stopped to stretch my legs in an old
cemetery.
It’s long ago now, but I remember
how the slope shimmered under the
tawny mountain light and that high
summer lassitude in which everything
goes still, drowsing beneath the electric throbbing of cicadas and the click
of grasshoppers. A sudden breeze came
down from the crags of the Three Sisters
across the valley, a dry rustle, stirring
like the ghosts of long-buried memory
itself.
Most of the graves were unmarked,
poor people’s graves, faint rows dimpling the long grass, punctuated by a
few Victorian obelisks, here and there
a stone slab scabbed by weather, sometimes a marker made by a friend, simple as a pale ring of stones.
One gravestone, erected by his union,
the United Mine Workers of America,
was for William J. Anthony. He died in
1904. The epitaph was plain: “8 Hours”
– that would be for the eight-hour working day, the modest, yet bitterly contested objective of British Columbia’s
working class during the last decades
of the 19th century.
I say bitterly contested because those
who sought what we take for granted
were routinely blacklisted and evicted
by employers, beaten by company
thugs, menaced by police and militias,
informed upon by secret agents who
seethed through the camps and jailed
by a judicial process that was not impartial.
We don’t dwell much upon this dark
and fascinating current in B.C’s history.
Sometimes it seems we are determined to forget it ever happened, al-
though it brought us all the things that
make a working middle-class life tolerable in the 21st century.
Statutory holidays like this Labour
Day, regular days off, vacations, sick
leave, maternity leave, public education, decent pay, compensation for
working overtime, pensions for those
too old to work, pensions for those disabled by accidents on the job, or by
job-induced illnesses, pensions for surviving spouses and families to prevent
them falling into destitution, prohibitions on child labour, a minimum wage
and, of course, the eight-hour work day
– in short, just about all that holds together the basic social infrastructure of
middle-class life, we owe to unions.
Amid glib assurances that unions are
no longer necessary because capitalism is kinder now, it’s easy to forget that
none of these benefits we assume as
rights were bestowed out of generosity
or concern.
The price of our comfortable assumptions about equality and entitlement
was the tears and tribulation and toil
of all the people in those unmarked
graves.
Everything we assume as our entitlements were hard-won concessions,
wrested from a brutal, dog-eat-dog capitalism that fought-in some cases with
barbarous savagery-to deny them.
In 1899, for example, fishermen
wanted a stable floor price for salmon
so unscrupulous merchants couldn’t
conspire to bid down the price. When
they struck at Steveston to spur negotiations, the army broke the strike for cannery owners. Seven organizers were
jailed.
The three magistrates who signed the
order for military intervention all had
cannery interests, labour historian Jack
Scott wryly noted in a speech at the
University of B.C. in 1969.
An investigation later discovered that
two justices of the peace who signed
the requisition for military force did
so during a meeting at which cannery
owners resolved to do whatever it took
to obtain army intervention on their behalf. The third magistrate to sign turned
out to be a cannery owner, Scott said.
Legal chicanery and the use of police
and militias as extensions of corporate
power to crush unions were more common than most imagine.
In 1877, a strike in Nanaimo disrupted the highly profitable mines of coal
baron Robert Dunsmuir.
“He fought unions with threats, spies,
and blacklist,” writes historian Ross
McCormack in Reformers, Rebels and
Revolutionaries: The Western Canadian
Radical Movement, 1899-1919, a book
analyzing the repressive forces that radicalized the labour movement. “When
Dunsmuir could not break a strike with
scabs, he was sufficiently influential to
have the provincial government call out
the militia.”
So the Royal Navy dispatched two
warships to Nanaimo. It later turned out
that three of Dunsmuir’s business partners were Royal Navy officers. And the
officer commanding the army unit that
broke the strike married Dunsmuir’s
daughter soon afterwards.
Worker’s protests over mine safety,
wages and working conditions came
under the army’s guns again in 1890,
and in 1900, and in 1913.
In 1912, when working men gathered
on Carrall Street in Vancouver to hear
speeches from the Industrial Workers
of the World, the city passed a bylaw
banning outdoor meetings. When the
men declined to disperse, citing their
civil right to lawful assembly and free
speech, troops in civilian dress blocked
side streets while 100 police, some
on horseback charged into the crowd
LABOUR RIGHTS
www.usw9346.ca
swinging clubs and injuring many.
The most effective and there-fore
most troublesome unionists, like Vancouver railway organizer Frank Rogers
and Trail smelterman Albert “Ginger”
Goodwin, were shot down with apparent impunity.
To be sure, there are glimpsed acknowledgments today of the province’s
social genesis in these tumultuous labour battles from a past that shaped –
and continues to shape – our present.
Plaques decorating the walk around
the Vancouver Convention Centre provide commend-able snippets of history. They might whet an appetite for the
story behind the first aboriginal union,
ShowCanada’s
Your Union Cardfirst general strike in Vanor
couver, or almost-forgotten Joe Naylor,
founder of the One Big Union, who
lay half a century in another unmarked
grave beside his slain friend, Ginger
Goodwin, who was shot dead in 1918.
The B.C. Teachers’ Federation has
assembled a comprehensive teaching guide that remains, so far as I can
determine, the only such resource for
B.C. schools.
“To a large degree, labour has been
erased from mainstream discourse,”
says Joey Hart-man, president of the
Vancouver and District Labour Council, one of the nation’s oldest labour
organizations. She’s also a vice-president of the Pacific Northwest Labour
History Associations, so she has a big
If you have or know of any Local businesses who wish to participate in this program please have them
contact
Sarah at the Union Hall at 250-425-0131 or admin@usw9346.ca
Here are the participating businesses...
1. The Cottonwood Tree (Fernie)
- Health Food store
- 10% off products
2. Sparwood Hose & Fitting
- 5% off
3. Intermountain Services
- $100 off purchase of a seacan
- 10% off rental
4. NAPA
interest in the subject.
One would think the sheer bloodiness of ordinary people’s long fight for
an eight-hour work day, for workplace
safety and so on, would be at least as
important to a well-rounded education
as memorizing the names of politicians
and generals who sent others to accomplish their deeds for them.
The standard response, how-ever, appears to be a studious averting of eyes
from the some-times violent crucible
in which the civil society we share today was forged….
— Stephen Hume
Vancouver Sun
Show
Your Union
Card
- 10% (applies to all mine employees)
5. Cummins Western Canada
- 5% off
6. BOARDSTIFF - in Fernie, BC
- 10% off
7. Elk River Guiding Company Fernie, BC
- 15% off
8. Gear Hub Sports (**NEW**)
- 15% off plus a $20.00 gift card for all 9346 workers for their first visit
9. Corrine’s Carpet Cleaning
Page 15
- Call 250-430-7020 or 250-425-9961 for a quote.
10. The Good Earth Natural Alternatives - Fernie
- 10% off for vitamins and supplements
11. Gerick Sports
- 5% off hard goods / 10% off soft goods at regular price.
12. W.E. Insurance (Home and Auto)
- Call 1-800-663-4200 in BC
- Call 1-877-787-7021 in all other Provinces.
- about 15% off and NO taxes. (works out to about $0.22/sq.ft. depending on size of area)
13. W.E Tax Services
- Servicing Elk Valley and Crowsnest Pass
- Call 1-800-845-1181
Page 16 August 2013
HEALTH & SAFETY
Concerns form
Please place completed form in Union box.
Please include any questions, comments, opinion, or concerns about health
and safety at Elkview minesite
—Steve Kallies
OHS Chair USWLocal 9346/ JOHSC Co-Chair
Health and safety issue:
Areas of health and safety you think we need to look at more closely:
Any suggestions for improving health and safety at Elkview:
www.usw9346.ca
Page 17
USW LOCAL 9346
Contracting out concerns
Please place completed form in Union Box, e-mail to admin@usw9346.ca, or
drop off at Union office. Please include any questions, comments, opinions,
or concerns about contracting out at Elkview. Thank you for your time and
input. We value all of your comments and suggestions.
— USW Local 9346
Contracting out issue:
Areas of contracting out you think we need to look at more closely:
Any suggestions for improving contracting out at Elkview:
Page 18 August 2013
www.usw9346.ca
Page 19
USW Local 9346
111 Centennial Square
PO Box 40, Sparwood, B.C., V0B 2G0
Phone 250-425-0131
After hours emergency 250-425-4147
Fax 250-425-0086
E-mail admin@usw9346.ca
www.usw9346.ca
Office hours: Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Your Union Executive
Alex Hanson —President
Dave Sheets — Vice-President
Steve Crane — Recording Secretary
Samuel Samy — Financial Secretary
Ryan Delaire — Treasurer
Leo Sheppard — Trustee
Devin MacDonald — Trustee
Guy Travis — Trustee
Ewan Gordon — Inside Guard
Chris Boyd — Outside Guard
Brandee Duff — Guide
Steve Kallies — Health and Safety Chair
Troy Cook — Grievance/WCB Chair
Jen Schlender — Women of Steel Co-Chair
Page 20 August 2013
Steelworkers
Sizes
T-Shirt Fundraiser
All Shirts $20
Proceeds donated to
Local Food Banks
Small
Medium
Large
X-Large
Name:
Return forms to the USW Office
Sparwood or call 250-425-0131
Phone: