To the membership,
At long last, we have officially started our bargaining cycle. As of this morning, we have engaged with the Company to find dates and start the process, after months of hard work and planning. We have focused our proposal requests based on the input of ALL of our members surveys, trying to find creative ways to solve problems, or looking for increases for all the items listed. They are proposals, and not all our requests will find their way into the collective agreement, as we have a very good contract to start with. It’s one of many reasons why we do not share the proposals with the members, knowing that everyone has fairly elected their committee to represent them at the table. Things change, modify and eventually become language. It’s when we have a tentative agreement that we get to share those gains with all of you. Secondly, we wouldn’t want the Company getting copies either! We will start engaging with the CAT team members in your local area. They will be your main point of contact back to the bargaining team, including your bargaining rep. This is to ensure that rumors are kept to the minimum and important information is not getting lost in the process. Find them this week, as they will have a message from our team to all of you. We are excited. From the chatter we are hearing from the floor, everyone else is excited too. Contract time can be a lot of fun, can be stressful, can be entertaining and can be very busy, all at once. It’s the one time during the term of a contract that the CBA is open to solve problems and negotiate new terms, increase benefits and build language to limit the Companies right to manage. As Steve Hunt says, it’s our goal to take the bricks out of their castle, to build our own house of rights. We want that house to be as big as possible! This round, is also our time to take back. It’s our turn. Let’s make this count. Stay tuned to dates, as soon as we know, you will know as well! In Solidarity, USW 7619 Bargaining Committee To the Membership, The Bargaining Committee had a productive two days drafting the last of the proposals and are in the final stages of drafting our package to present at the table. The Bargaining Committee feels it is representative of the memberships’ feedback and wants to continue to encourage everyone’s engagement. The CAT team members will be involved over the next few weeks as we move into the early steps of our plan. Next week we will be meeting again to continue to work towards the objectives that you have set for us, with the goal of reaching the absolute best collective agreement that we can achieve at record high copper prices. (Today’s Copper : $4.49lb) We are also reminded as we build proposals, of the damage that was caused by management during the Bowser era. It’s affected moral, work ethic, the bottom line, mental health and everything we do at the mine. We have to Acknowledge the Past to Protect Our Future! The Committee has built a strong comradery based on shared values and working towards a common goal. We would like to thank the membership for their participation with the survey’s and well thought out ideas. These were key to creating a starting point for many of the proposals we have drafted. Thank you for the support you continue to show your Bargaining Committee. DID YOU KNOW ? In 2021, this is the current washroom facility that our shovel operators forced to rely on. An example, a shovels major maintenance can be completed in 20 days, but it took over 6 months to have ONE toilet permanently installed on a shovel. These unreasonable delays were due to the Company’s decision to install them “on an opportunistic basis”. Good Afternoon Members,
The Committee has been busy the last eight days working through the stacks of surveys, collective language and putting plans together to formalize the proposals this round of negotiations. It's a tremendous amount of work, as we have over 50 years of history that forms the back drop of the CBA. We were also joined by District 3 Director, Steve Hunt, again today. We had planned to meet with Vince Ready tomorrow, May 7th, as he was acting as a facilitator under Article 3.07, our contracting out language. Unfortunately, we have had to delay until May 26th/27th as Vince has personal issues to attend to. As a committee, we went over the long history of Article 3.07. For some, like Corey, Jeff and myself, it's been a major part of the challenges we have faced over the last 9-10 years. For the rest of the committee, it was a history lesson of what the language means, how it works and how it has paid off since 1989. The discussion led to some very good questions about process, reasoning and how we got here. Plainly put, the Company made us aware years ago that they "didn't like the language", that "it gives the Union to many rights" and "we are willing to deny every grievance and do what ever we want anyways." It seems this approach has finally caught up to them again. The first time, we won a $500,000 dollar settlement for the violation of 78 contracting out grievances, and prior to that, we had won every single contracting out arbitration since inception. All total, that's 88 / 0. Pretty good record, yet they still continued to violate continuously. It's one of, if not the most, important pieces that protects our jobs from contractors, protects our jobs during a layoff and creates more jobs if the language is applied properly. We have recaptured shovel bucket repairs, box liners, hydro vac, machined parts, and many more tasks, along with countless major projects. We have continued to build our own fleet of haul trucks and do major shutdowns in the mill and mines, all with our own employees. Not many places in industry does this happen, but here, it's due to the language we had fought for in 1989. It's the one big hiccup that has to be addressed on May 26th and 27th, or it's going to be a major issue at the bargaining table. If the Company is allowed to continue to abuse the language like they have for the last multitude of years, it will continue to plague us moving forward. We will see more contractors, less full time employees and less opportunities for advancement. As one high level arbitrator stated, Article 3.07 "gives the Union a substantive right". We have to protect it at all costs, as with it's down fall and failure, it would start a chain of events that would be extremely harmful long term. Contracting out is just one of the many issues that need to be addressed at the bargaining table this round. So much so, we have had to book extra days to continue through our list provide by everyone. The support for the committee has been outstanding. We appreciate the feedback and positive comments, so thank you. On a last note, it sounds like the Company is going to try to push the mandatory KN95/CN95 mask thing again. There are several reminders that are very important to know about. First and foremost, no one can force you into any unsafe work situation. If the Company is stating that only way to be safe while working in close proximity of another worker is to wear PPE, which should be the last line of defense at all times, then you have the Right to Refuse that work. Social distancing is the only true protective means you have to avoid getting sick, as a mask is NOT 100% effective. It's only a barrier that is there to add another level of protection above and beyond the 6 foot rule. No one can force you to work in close proximity. Second, we are not alone. USW 9346, representing Teck Elkview and Coal Mountain, are fighting back as well. They have several campaigns planned to push back against this latest Corporate agenda, which we have been informing key stewards and members about. Down to the brass tacks, they are afraid of the new rules, which would compromise their ability to make massive profits during record breaking copper numbers. Till the next update! In Solidarity, Your Local Union Bargaining Committee To the membership,
As we start the process of building bargaining proposals, it's good to see the committee collaborating and thinking outside the box. Little words like "may" and "shall" have big implications imposed in the right places. You may get vacation this year, or you shall get vacation this year. For certain groups, getting vacation is pretty difficult, as the Company continues to cut crews and vacation allotment, all while producing record profits! As reported by Teck, they saw a %247 increase in first-quarter adjusted profits in Q1. Copper has been hanging over $4.50 a pound, which is really good for them, so it should be equally good for us. It surprising to see the continued drive to cut costs and bypass critical repairs and shutdowns. Climbing the corporate ladder must be harder than we thought..... Speaking of that, the committee was quite surprised by the amount of staff who responded to the surveys! Over 40, with great commentary on some of the problems they are experiencing. Guess everything isn't all good on their side either. People have been asking for more details on the process of bargaining, so we would like to take some time to stop and explain. As much as we will, and want to, discuss everything we are doing, building or proposing, we have to be extremely careful on what we put out. The Company is tied into every network, Facebook and email system, and constantly remind us of that by gloating they got an email blast. By informing you, we will be informing them. So what will we communicate? Once we enact the plan we have in place, we will provide constant updates on dates we plan to meet with the Company, progress at the table, issues or hiccups, and all important information pertaining to bargaining. We will provide as much information as possible, without giving away our position(s). We also want to be able to communicate directly to you, so we will hold onsite meetings, give the CAT team information and launch strategic campaigns as we progress through the bargaining cycle. It's also a good reminder that information that you hear or rumors that are started are put to rest quickly. There is nothing better than a good rumor, but it can do a lot of harm before it does any good. Get your information from a reliable source! Thank you for everyone's support so far, keep up the solidarity and keep informed! In solidarity, USW 7619 Bargaining Committee PS - DID YOU KNOW? In 1999, as part of the Company's bargaining strategy, they laid off 19 of our brothers and sisters? We called them "the hostages", and the Company proposed getting rid of them in order to sign the contract. Obviously, our Union said no way, fought for 109 days to get them back to work and signed a deal which kept them all employed. That's where the "Remember 99" stickers came from. "We start together and we will end together" Letter to the Membership
There has been a lot of conversations regarding autonomy at HVC in recent weeks. We have seen a persistent push from the industry to put more technology into our work place, some of it helps us do our jobs better, some of it informs us of things we could never see ourselves, and most recently it starts to remove work from us all together. I recently had the chance to attend a conference in Santiago, Chile, regarding automation in mining. It was very well represented by international guests, politicians, economists, CEO’s of mining companies and Union leaders. They shared their stories, their achievements, their pain and their knowledge. Over the two days, I learnt more about Automation than I could have ever imagined. I came back with a new focus on what is important to our local Union, our communities and our country. The basis of the conference was Automation and the industrial revolution 4.0. In the past, automation and technology helped us achieve better work practices and make workers more valuable. For the first time in human history, computers (AI) are being designed to replace us and are devaluing workers. Big data, data analytics, machine learning and automation can, will and already has made drastic changes to our lives. Self-driving cars, automated tellers, automated banking, online shopping with AI controlled warehouses, and it’s only the start of a terrifying trend. On the far right wing, CEO’s told us that “automation was good for us”. It was going to increase production, efficiency and safety. One CEO pointed out that an automated drill did the inside of a blast pattern, but “on the outside pattern, near the pit edge, we will get humans to drill, since we don’t want to risk the $250 million dollar drill”. Although it’s interesting technology, it does not eliminate a human being put at risk to work on the machines at high elevation, or in a remote mine. Good for us, right? What they will achieve is record profits, eliminating human wages and “inconsistencies (human error)”, all while removing that same income from the global economy. In the middle, politicians and economists talked about the real facts. 40-50% of the jobs as we see them today, both in Chile and in Canada, will not exist as we see them in ten years. In Santiago, there are 19 million people in the city alone, many of them working multiple low paying jobs to make ends meet. In Canada, studies have indicated that jobs like trucking, tellers, front end staff and finical institutions are some of the highest risk, with nearly two million trucking jobs in the current marker. As those jobs are eliminated by automation, so are the wages these employees earned, the taxes they paid and the money they spent to support the economy. Who will make up for the loss? The cost is going to be burdened by the remaining tax payers. As local governments lose their tax income and local businesses suffer a loss in revenue they will have to reduce employment levels as well, it’s easy to see the snowball building. At HVC, 200 haul truck driver jobs is equivalent to 20 million in lost revenue to local economies each year. As one person stated, robots do not pay taxes. The politicians pleaded with the conference, stating that if they did not start to think about the impact on their communities, the implications would be felt farther than they ever imagined. On the left, Union leaders from some of the biggest mines in Chile spoke about the effect of employee loss on the communities and the local union. Some spoke about layoffs, most spoke about retraining for those who could, or who were able to be retrained. Companies have to play their cards close to their chest regarding their social licence and their support to operate in the local community, all at the same time trying to figure out ways to reduce their bottom line and increase profits. They spoke openly about building language to protect the workers they still have, and ensuring that there is meaningful work for those who are left in the future. But they also spoke about the impact this has had on the overall global economy. I came back with a new found vigor to look at the problem as a whole. We have already seen the impact on moral, as haul truck drivers and other employees consistently ask “am I going to have a job in the future?” We have seen the absurd amount of money Teck has thrown at automation over the last year and the lack of progressive action taken to minimize its negative impact. The leaders have stated when asked, they have no idea how much they’ve spent. (They should know down to the penny). I spoke to Australian Union leaders who have seen the direct impact of automation losing 200 jobs in the Pilbara, when driverless trains left employees sitting in booths on the side of the road watching their trains roll by. Their towns are dying, as people leave for new employment, and the trains are being run 1200km away, from a remote control room in Perth. We have to stop playing the “it’s going to be ok” game, because if we do not put serious rules and precautions in place, the work that is being created will continually shift away from the workforce. So, I’ve reached out. It’s not just us that are in this fight. The Vancouver Long Shore workers had a 3 hour strike to prevent a 9000 member layoff if the Company was allowed to implement AI in the loading docks. Other Teck operations have already seen paper fly across desks as they look to implement AHS at other sites. Autonomy doesn’t stop at Haul Trucks. Teck and others have indicated intent to automate drilling, hauling, dozing, shoveling, analytical work, data entry, technician work and operations processes. There is even technology and big data analytics being developed to replace management positions. If the employers aren’t going to reach out and consult with their stakeholders and those who may be impacted by this transition, then someone has to. This isn’t a fight we can stand by and wait for, we have to take the lead and get ahead of it. We HAVE taken a stand. The Local Union is forcing Teck to the table to negotiate language that protects the employees that we currently have, as well as future employment at our operation. We want guarantees that new work that is being created due to automation is going to be ours, not supervisors or contractors. We want guarantees that those displaced will not be devalued and will be upskilled, retrained and invested into. We have requested language that ensures employees who want to be retrained into these new, high tech jobs will be allowed to do so. We want an entire list of the jobs that are being created, not just the ones that are being lost. We want to have serious discussions around protection, not just absorption. We are not signing off on any new automation or other language rules or variances until we get that protection in place. If the company wants language to assist in ensuring the success of their investments in technology, we want language to ensure the investment in, and success of their employees. We know that people are terrified of what their future looks like. We want to be able to ensure people with more than just words that they have something to look forward too, so they can tell their spouses and children, friends and families that they are moving up, not down. We want to see a long term success of the mine, but not at the cost of employees, communities, businesses and the economy. We are all stakeholders in this business and need to be treated as such. It’s going to take a lot of hard work, and we are committed to ensuring that we protect you and your employment. On a final note, please take a look at the language in the CBA regarding layoff. Page 226, which states the Company has to employee us BEFORE contractors if we have the skills to do so. Put plainly, we might not have brick layers, but we would be mixing the mortar and passing the bricks. That language has protected layoffs for years! If you have any questions, please do hesitate to call, text, email or otherwise contact the hall or myself. In solidarity, Kyle Wolff President, United Steelworkers Local 7619 Proudly Representing Over 1000 Unionized Employees at Teck Highland Valley Copper Partnership To the Membership,
On Jan 17th, 2018, the Union made application to the Minister of Labor due to ongoing and escalating labor issues at Highland Valley Copper. The application was accepted, and the parties first met with the Special officers appointed by the Minister on April 6th. Since that date, the Union and the Company have met numerous times. There was an earnest attempt from the Union to try and resolve the many issues, and there was some movement on a few key issues. Unfortunately, the majority of the issues are still outstanding. We have asked the Special Officers to step back in to assist the parties. The Union will be requesting that the Special Officers make orders in regards to these outstanding issues. We have confirmed dates to sit with the Special Officers on June 11th, 2018. This is also the same date as the Executive meeting, followed on June 12th by the membership meeting. Both of these days have now been changed. June’s membership meeting will be held in Kamloops, on Thursday June 14th, 2018, at the regular meeting times. Please make sure your crew members are aware that the Logan Lake meeting on Tuesday the 12th will be cancelled. We are continuing to schedule training for Shop Steward Level 1 on June 18th and 19th, followed by Shop Steward Level 2 on the 20th and 21st. If you are interested in either one of those courses please email Jeff Jewell ( [email protected] ) or the Union office ( [email protected] ). Thank you for your patience as this process takes place. It’s frustrating for everyone involved, but as they say, Rome never got built in a day. In solidarity, Kyle Wolff President, United Steelworkers Local 7619 ~ I've said consistently that no employer ever really accepts a union. They tolerate the unions. The very minute they can get a pool of unemployment they'll challenge the unions and try to get back what they call managements prerogatives, meaning hire, fire, pay what you want. ~ Jimmy Hoffa To the Membership, The Parties met on Friday, April 6th, from which we have agreed on a process to resolve the current outstanding issues at Highland Valley Copper. Please see the attached joint release. As a first step, we have agreed to meet this Thursday in regards to the contracting out disputes, with further meetings to be scheduled this month. The pension adjustment conversation is still ongoing. A more detailed updated will be available tomorrow at the membership meeting in Logan Lake, at 8:30 AM, 6:15 PM and 8:15 PM at the Logan Lake Seniors Center. Thank you for your continued support as we quickly start to resolve these issues. As stated in the release, the Officers have given us the month of April to resolve all outstanding issues. In solidarity, Kyle Wolff President, USW 7619
To the Membership,
To All Employees,
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August 2021
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