To The Membership,
Respect. Seems like a simple request, or a simple idea. It’s not much to ask, not much to provide, doesn’t take any money, or real effort to do. In my opinion, it’s what the leadership at HVC lacks. They don’t respect anything, anyone, or any process, now including bargaining. In the next few days, you will receive a letter from HVC at your home address - or most likely already have. In it, the Company whines and complains about the poor decisions they have made in their business/mine plan, and asks you directly to give up all your hard earned benefits and language to acquire more “additional savings”. We have been very cautious to allow people to engage in the process if they wanted to, and have never forced anyone to read, subscribe or do anything they didn't want to. It should always be your choice. To send a letter like this to your house, to your family, and in it claim that they are looking out for those very same people, is downright terrible. Then to force you to attend something under the direct threat of discipline… if they have to force you to listen, they have already lost. All this because we have a mine manager that has decided that money in his pocket is more important than your child’s post-high school education, paying for critical medication, your retirement, your mental health, or even the future of all employees at HVC. This, at a time where the Company is making record profits. Yet, we are still pumping 40% of our copper down the tails line for a week, and maintaining equipment so poorly that the downtime is now a daily occurrence and at record highs. We have gone from preventative maintenance, to emergency call out teams, wrapping slicker jackets around pipes until they fail completely. The hard reality at HVC is that we have never been in such disrepair, yet the blindfolds just get thicker. So here is the ultimate truth: The Company has planned for all this to happen, right down to the amount of people who are currently working at HVC. Over the last 3 years, we have cut over 200 jobs, putting more stress on each employee, ensuring they are overworked; all in a long term plan to get the language they are proposing right now. It all comes back to respect. They do not respect you, or the work you do. They do not respect the effort that we have all put into trying to maintain a plant that has been slowly and literally imploding (Dome) from the “cost savings” that have been initiated. They do not respect the historical work we have done, or the collective language that we live under. Most recently, we have found out that after collapsing the conveyor crew, which was a direct and spiteful attack on those employees for refusing overtime, they have had a contractor doing those very same checks. When the Company was questioned on it, they answered - we (Union) have never done that work- an outright lie. This latest letter, which is unprecedented at HVC, calls into question the Company’s true intent at the bargaining table. We can all see that they already think they have the language they have proposed, as we see more of our regular work disappear to contractors, and we move more grievances to arbitration. They have already made moves to hire non-union contractors and put them on top of the dam, work specifically outlined as work performed by HVC employees, and regularly do not follow any collective language they believe they have already secured during the bargaining process. They have made no attempt to hire employees in any work group, and have fallen back to overtime to cover the loss of those employees. Some areas have lost 6-10 tradespersons, and we are now contracting out that work due to lack of manpower. Then they have the gall to say “no work will be lost due to contracting out with the new proposal”. How can you claim that, and in the same breath contract out huge breadths of our own jobs, which should have been done by Unionized HVC employees. The remaining proposals the Company has left on the table have not been discussed by either party in any great detail, as they will affect the entire future of your employment at HVC. They are extremely complicated, and at the moment, they are still exactly what they were in the beginning; proposals. Pieces of paper which have no meaning until they are agreed upon, or removed from the table. The Company intends to discuss those proposals with you at these meetings in the near future, and have made it mandatory for you to attend, under threat of discipline. We signed up for it as a bargaining team member, it’s not fair for you to be forced to listen to it. The Company now intends to bypass the bargaining committee, and bargain directly with each of you. Lack of respect for even bargaining. To me and the Union Bargaining Committee, the Company is now desperately trying to convince each and every one of you that this is all a good idea. That a lack of seniority, permanent discipline, the ability to hire apprentices off the street, contracting out at will, casual employees, and picked job postings, will somehow improve your working conditions at HVC? No one can predict the future of the mine, so stop preaching it, you don’t have a crystal ball. We have come up with a list of questions that I would like each and every one of you to ask in those meetings, to ensure you have the whole story. If they want to have a small group discussion with each employee to discuss the bargaining proposals, you might as well be armed with questions and answers that they will once again lie to you about. But, in order to keep the Company on their toes, and not let them prepare their answers, the Bargaining Team will have copies upon request, so that you can bring them with you to your scheduled Power Hour. In the meantime, please feel free to email Greg Brower [email protected] with any and all questions that you may have, as he has asked for you to do so. I know that several people already have, and I think it’s a great idea. Finally, please, take the high road, and stay calm. They want you to react. It's better to be informed, and have the ability to call out the BS when they tell you. It's not often you’re going to have a chance to see the man in person! Don't worry, I'm sure you will have a ton of questions for him. Sorry for the long post, lots to say. In solidarity, Kyle Wolff President, Local 7619 Working hard to Bargain you, your family and your future, a fair and reasonable contract. To the Membership,
Thanks for everyone that attended the Membership meeting on Nov 15th, and having an informed discussion on the remaining issues around bargaining. It was great to see so many people from mine operations out at the meetings. You are the hardest group to have open conversation with, as you don't have a lunch room, and can't have discussions like the rest of us. We had an opportunity to bargain for two days this week, and resolved a total of 8 issues. Some of these topics were LOU's and items in our proposal, and we started into one of the Company's major proposals : Training. We have discussed their proposal, and are waiting on a response. We also proposed to attempt to resolve the scheduled arbitration on Dec 19th and 20th (the 10.15 grievance), where the Company declined to engage. This would have cleared up a week of dates, resolved two arbitration's, and solved a problem that is over two years old. We have yet to confirm any more bargaining dates this year, but most likely, will not be bargaining again until January. With this, a quote comes to mind from the autocratic, yet beloved head of the powerful United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, in his 1940 presidential campaign. “There are two great material tasks in life, The first is to achieve or acquire something of value or something that is desirable… The second task is to prevent some scoundrel from taking it away from you.” In solidarity, Kyle Wolff Local 7619 President It's been a busy week in the office, and a busy week in the markets. With the surprise US election results, the market has taken a substantial swing to the positive side. Even our good buddy Don is excited about the future!
Check out this short video, talking about the upswing in Coking Coal, Zinc and Copper. http://www.bnn.ca/video/teck-on-a-tear~992339 It's all good news for us, as we continue to produce great copper tonnage out of the West Wall and Highmont/Lornex pits without touching Phase 8. Copper is on a sharp climb upwards, as it closed today at 2.54 a lb/US. With the Canadian dollar at .74c American, the exchange rate puts it close to 3.44 lb/Can. Back in 2011, we were selling Copper at 3.37 lb/US, the Canadian dollar was on par, so when they try to tell you that copper was 46% lower in 2011, it seems that they forgot to include the exchange rate. Back to business, we have changed the location of the membership meeting from the Logan Lake Fire Hall to: The Logan Lake Church on the Hill at 237 Jasper Dr. There is more room for all of us, better parking, and they were very accommodating in our request. Please ensure you tell your co-workers about the change! See all of you there, as we will be able to give you a good bargaining update, talk about the mediators answer to THVCP and dis spell any rumors. Times as always are 8:30am - 6:00pm - 8:30pm. Last thing, please join us for Remembrance Day led by the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 52 at the Veterans Memorial Cairn, in Riverside Park. Mounting of the Guard starts at 10:45 AM. Lest we forget. In Solidarity, Kyle Wolff To All You Working Folk,
First off, I want to thank members for showing their support. Through your kind words, phone calls, wearing swag, or not giving into the Company’s bullying tactics, every day you show the resolve of our union, and our commitment to a fair, respectful collective agreement. Throwing away your bargaining flags and cutting them off trucks is not only disrespectful, it was destroying your personal property. Responding in kind may seem tempting— please continue to take the high road. To be very clear, we are still a long ways from completing negotiations. The Company had four months to start bargaining prior to Sept 30th, they decided to wait until the end of August to bring their 57 proposals to the table, a total of over 220 pages of documents. Now they are in a rush to take all your rights away, and have applied to the Labour Board for mediation. In response, the Union advised the Labour Board: “United Steelworkers believes this application is premature and should not be granted as the parties have not finished negotiations for non-monetary issues, and the outstanding issues that the employer has listed are proposals in the employers non-monetary and monetary proposals that the parties have not had any discussion or negotiation on. The Parties have met on the dates as outlined by the employer and have signed off on a significant number of proposals” The Union has proposed two extra bargaining dates for Nov 16th and 17th, which have been confirmed. Last week you also saw HVC management offer local media a comment on the quarterly report. They didn’t do the same last year; they didn’t do the same last quarter. Why now? Because we’re bargaining. Veiled threats of tough times are not a new threat. We’ve heard it all before. From Lornex to Cominco, to Teck; they always claim they’re financially challenged when it’s time to bargain. But when Steelworkers stick together we’ve always made progress. Let’s remember, this is from a HVC management team whose evidence BC Supreme Court Justice Groves referred to earlier this year as “unbelievable,” “dishonest,” “unconvincing,” and “self-serving.”[i] In fact, the books show Teck is making money and specifically making money at HVC. Copper Prices may be down from all-time highs, but they still deliver healthy profits. This round of bargaining isn’t about tough financial times, it’s about a management that wants to reduce your rights on the job, increase contracting out and not share the profits you’ve helped generate. As a final comment, if this management team has done such a bang up job running the mine site to date, then why would you ever “plan” your mine site future to take away benefits, rights and language from your employees? Only the worst type of management leverages their workforce to ensure they make ends meet, rather than planning to ride out the low spots by not mining out your best ore body prematurely. We will have the Nov 15th membership meeting in Logan Lake, which we hope everyone who is able will attend. It will be at the Logan Lake Fire Hall at 8:30am - 6:00pm and 8:30pm- with parking available in the mall parking lot. This is a good time to discuss, ask questions, and get answers to all those burning questions. Stay calm, stay informed, answer rumors with facts, and let’s support each other. In Solidarity, Kyle Wolff, USW 7619 President ----------------------------------------- [i] Jylha v. Teck Highland Valley Copper Partnership,, 2016 BCSC 1174 |
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August 2021
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