Hi Everyone,
I want to thank everyone who voiced their thoughts, feelings and concerns to me today, after the text alert that went out last night. It's extremely disturbing to think that we are intentionally trying to bypass safety just to get an extra load or two in, and it's leading to serious injury. I want to put this to everyone. When you get into your car on your way to work, you put your seat belt on, pay attention to the road, obey the stop signs and try not to speed. For some reason, when we put a hard hat on at HVC, everything changes. We drive faster, in bigger equipment, in poor weather conditions, with massive consequences. I don't know why there is an attitude that we are invincible in haul trucks or pickups while on site, because it is only a matter of time before something goes wrong. When it does, its typically not a minor fender bender. Which brings us to a bargaining update. Put plainly, everyone should take a deep breath and schedule their vacation like they would any other year. A lot of questions of "what if" have been raised, and until the Company wants to get back to the table to try and complete this prolonged bargaining session, that what if is still a reality. It's never the intention of any Union to bargain the membership out the door, but people should be aware that with the demands the Company has on the table at this time, a labor dispute is a very possible reality. For now, like we have said before, we are still collecting a paycheck, and now we are scheduling vacations. I am headed down to Mexico to enjoy the sun with my brother who is getting married near the end of March. I'm also planning to spend some time over the summer enjoying the beach with my family. We can't put our lives on hold or live in fear of what may happen; we must prepare for it and be wary of the possibility, but never stop living. Put it this way, even if a "what if" happened, would you not go on that trip anyways, or would you cancel those plans? Probably not, so try to look forward to the hot sun and warm beaches. Let the committee worry about the what if's, its our job. Things are looking pretty good long term too. Our good buddy Don has been all over the news, talking about how much money they are making, and where coal, copper and zinc is headed. In the short term, copper is expected to continue to increase to $3 bucks a pound, nearly $4 American, getting back to and higher than 2011 prices. We are still pumping out copper into the silo, and all this delay is really starting to turn up the heat on long term plans. Kinda hard to plan with all this uncertainty eh? We have our monthly membership meeting coming up on the 14th of March, which, once again, the Company has denied our grievance committee chair and others the ability to attend. I'm not sure how they can't find one person to replace him so that he can do his job helping all of us, but please lend Jeff the support he needs on the floor. The Company is making it especially painful for our reps these days, all in a tactic to try and intimidate us. All it has done for far is piss us all off just a little more than yesterday. Last words, the whole bargaining committee and I have been extremely impressed by the strength, dedication, solidarity of everyone of you so far. We can't always worry about those one or two, but when I hear 80-90% are making the right decisions on important items, it makes me smile. It gives me the faith to keep fighting on your behalf, to ensure that not only that we have a workplace that is safe to work at, but also have a contract and a future that we can be proud of. Keep up the hard work, we aren't done fighting yet. In solidarity, Kyle Wolff USW 7619 President, Highland Valley Copper Mine Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2021
Categories |