Good Morning Members,
As Don Lindsay said “we will need 100 Highland Valley Copper’s to keep up with the demand”. With todays continued high copper prices, record profits and over a BILLION in cost savings, this couldn’t be more true. The copper market continues to surge forward, and the messaging around our future continues to burn bright. It also sets a strong tone at the bargaining table, and we have to send a strong message to the Company. It’s been a hard few years. More like almost a decade, as our pride and joy has been quickly and literally started to fall apart. The mill is in a state of disrepair that is beyond imagination, we have had to take over safety in many places of the mine, as it has become too regular to fall through floors, run from emergency to emergency and never have enough time or people to fix things properly. In conversation with the upper management, they don’t seem to care about what’s happening, as it seems the layers of deceit and years of not caring has finally caught up with us, but everyone still has to hide the errors and delays. This isn’t a shot at the floor. The frustration of employees is shared with most of the front line supervisors, as they can’t get the support to deal with their employees issues from the “White Hat Pajama Brigade”. It’s the middle and the top that we get direction from, if we get it. Remember, management believes “once the house is built, we only need a few people to maintain it.” But, we have become complacent. We have let them run this place down, and it’s nearly killed multiple co-workers in the process. We cannot accept “waiting for a fatality”. It’s going to be a co-worker, a brother or a sister that you have worked with for years, or even yourself. We have the right to work in a safe and healthy workplace, no one has the ability to take that away. That’s why “Red Tape Works.” We cannot continue to put equipment back into service that is derelict, in disrepair or unsafe, it’s our co-workers that will suffer. Red tag it, shut it down until it’s repaired, and use the right to refuse forms. We cannot walk away from those safety issues, it’s going to end up in catastrophe. So, as we enter into this round of bargaining, we need all of you to do your part. Do not accept safety deviances, do not accept dusty conditions, do not accept lack of water trucks, bad seats, busted suspension, no horn, broken lights…… all it will do is get you hurt or in trouble. Down any piece of equipment that has unresolved issues. If it’s been in the log book for weeks, it’s time to address it. If it’s been on the list for ever, it’s time to get it fixed. For those who can’t get a washroom break, and are still being forced to crap in a plastic bucket in a live electrical switch room or behind the track of a dozer, why? Why would you demean yourself to that level, so you can produce more profit for the company? We were forced to move this issue to an expedited arbitration to force the Company to install washrooms, after their 3rd stage grievance response. It stated the Company was looking to provide “higher quality products” instead of providing washrooms, and shovel washrooms were going to get installed on “an opportunistic basis”, which literally means “exploiting chances offered by immediate circumstances without reference to a general plan or moral principle.” It’s time to start to start questioning the Company’s "Moral Compass." We are going to the table on July 28th, and we need your support. It’s time to take back safety. Safety is Ours. Red Tape Works. In Solidarity, Your USW Local 7619 Bargaining Committee Comments are closed.
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August 2021
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