USW Local 6166 members accept Vale’s final offer despite their bargaining committee’s unanimous recommendation to reject it

USW Local 6166 members yesterday voted to accept Vale’s final offer despite their bargaining committee’s unanimous recommendation to reject it.

Members at Manitoba Operations in Thompson ratified a five-year contract offer made Sept. 11, which essentially creates two tiers of employees – existing employees and new hires – and will extract significant concessions from current workers in terms of drug and dental benefits in terms of deductible co-pays, while new hires are now ineligible for both as retiree benefits. Current workers will continue to be eligible for them as retiree benefits.

The new contract, which expires Sept. 15, 2024, gives unionized workers a 1.25 per cent wage increase effective tomorrow, as well as further percentage increases annually over the life of the agreement.

The offer also  included a $4,000 ratification bonus payable Sept. 20 and a $2,000 benefits transition payment, also payable the same date.

The company said recently the retiree benefit liability for Vale’s Manitoba Operations is currently $163 million and is growing annually. Vale said the old healthcare plan design “had not been updated for over 50 years” and was not sustainable.”

This year’s contract talks mark the first round of bargaining between the company and the union since the Thompson smelter and refinery, which had opened in March 1961, were permanently shut down in July 2018. Since the previous contract was signed five years ago in September 2014, USW Local 6166 at Vale has lost about half the number of unionized workers it represented then – shrinking to about 600 members from around 1,200 in 2014.

There hadn’t been a lockout or strike at Vale’s Manitoba Operations here in Thompson in 20 years since September 1999 when Inco locked out its unionized workforce for 11 weeks between September and December 1999.

“Although you’re bargaining committee unanimously recommend that the membership strike down the company’s final offer, we understand the pressures that you have been under and accept your voice as our own” Local 6166 said last night in a statement posted on its website, adding “you’re bargaining committee and local union executive dedicate ourselves to standing with you 100 per cent going forward and representing your best interests in the future. We would like to thank all of you who showed support, voiced your opinion, attended meetings, read release’s, questioned the circumstances, cast your ballots and informed yourselves.

“It is time to set our sights on the implementation of this new contract and prepare for the next round of negotiations, remember with preparation and education we can achieve the best results for ourselves and our communities.”

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USW Local 6166 votes on Vale’s final offer: New hires would bear initial brunt of concessions

USW Local 6166 members at Vale’s remaining mining and milling operations in Thompson, Man. wrap up two days of voting today on the Brazilian mining giant’s final five-year contract offer made Sept. 11, which essentially would create two tiers of employees – existing employees and new hires – and demands significant concessions from current workers in terms of drug and dental benefits in terms of deductible co-pays, while new hires would be ineligible for both as retiree benefits. Current workers would continue to be eligible for them as retiree benefits. The current five-year collective agreement expires tomorrow.

Voting by USW Local 6166 members continues until 8 p.m. Remote voting is available through email and text for those who are unable to make it to the Steel Centre union hall at 19 Elizabeth Dr.

The retiree benefit liability for Vale’s Manitoba Operations is currently $163 million and is growing annually.

“While $163 million sounds like a lot of money, the union can assure you that your health while working and into retirement is worth more,” says the union bargaining committee. “This should never be a point of debate in the industry we work in. This is the cost of doing business for Vale. ”

The union bargaining committee has accepted all of the benefits changes the company proposed in its final offer except for the closure of the retiree benefits plan for new employees hired after Sept. 15.

The USW bargaining committee is not recommending members accept the contract. If members turn the proposed contact down, the bargaining committee plans “to request to continue negotiating a fair and reasonable contract that the parties can come to terms on while working under the current contract.” If members do turn down the company’s final contract offer, the company could agree to such a proposal from the union to continue working and bargaining under the current collective agreement, or they could alternatively simply lock workers out after the contract expires.

This year’s contract talks mark the first round of bargaining between the company and the union since the Thompson smelter and refinery, which had opened in March 1961, were permanently shut down in July 2018. Since the current contract was signed five years ago in September 2014, USW Local 6166 at Vale has lost about half the number of unionized workers it represented then – shrinking to about 600 members from around 1,200 in 2014.

There hasn’t been a lockout or strike at Vale’s Manitoba Operations here in Thompson in 20 years since September 1999 when Inco locked out its unionized workforce for 11 weeks between September and December 1999.

The Union of Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers was the first bargaining agent here in Thompson when Inco workers unionized and had negotiated a contract with Inco that ran through 1964. United Steelworkers of America Local 6166 received its charter of affiliation from the international on Jan. 3, 1962 and the USWA was certified by the Manitoba Labour Board as the bargaining agent for Inco employees in Thompson on May 31, 1962.

Vale outlined its final offer directly to employees in a memo released Sept. 13. “The old healthcare plan design has not been updated for over 50 years and is not sustainable,” Vale says. “The new plan design allows the company to provide generous benefits to you during your active employment and into your retirement.”

The offer includes a $4,000 ratification bonus payable Sept. 20 and a $2,000 benefits transition payment, also payable the same date.

In response, later in the day yesterday, USW Local 6166’s six-member bargaining committee, led by local president Warren Luky, issued its own update for members:

“We discussed at the table the benefits that Vale was offering the membership, the most contentious of all concessions they brought was the co-pay component and post-retirement benefits for new hires. The co-pay means that our members will now have to pay part of their drug costs. As discussed at the meetings held at the Royal Canadian Legion on Thursday, Sept 12, Vale wants to pass on the $163 million liability to YOU and renege on that same $163 million promise. We all know that this is a concession!  One, that we warned the company that we did not think our membership would accept no matter how much we attempted to reduce the out of pocket hit to our members.

“Vale seems to continue to mislead the membership with their statements, there is no secret Vale came to the table seeking changes to our benefits, there is no secret that the union bargaining committee discussed benefits at the table including co-pay, generic drugs, over the counter etc. to identify how far and how deep Vale was attempting to take from you. We understand they are fearful that this offer will be turned down and that the union will then request to continue negotiating a fair and reasonable contract that the parties can come to terms on while working under the current contract. At the end of the day, the Union has not agreed to the offer before you. That is why your bargaining committee has not recommended this offer to our membership. The ‘generous benefits’ Vale is offering is a concession of what we currently have. It is important to understand that this is Vale’s final offer, not a mutually agreed and negotiated contract that you are voting on.

“At no point did the union consider no post retirement benefits for new hires. It may not affect you now, but after time we will be sitting at the table bargaining and find more members that don’t have post-retirement benefits than those who do have them. Do you think they will fight for something that they don’t have? That we let the company take from them????

“At this point in bargaining we have to make a choice to try get the best overall deal we can at the table. A deal that puts enough money in our member’s pockets to offset the cost of the concessions, the rising cost of living and inflation, increasing tax base due to the shrinking of employment etc. We worked very hard to do this. We respected the process and maintain the moral high ground throughout. You now have the choice to take the final offer or have us get back to the table to get what is fair and reasonable for all.”

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Les Ellsworth defeats incumbent Murray Nychyporuk to recapture USW Local 6166 presidency: Third consecutive election battle between the two since 2009

Six years after he was turfed from office by Murray Nychyporuk, Les Ellsworth turned the tables last night and reclaimed the presidency of USW Local 6166, defeating Nychyporuk, a two-term incumbent who became president in April 2009 when he beat Ellsworth.

The two men also faced off in April 2012 when Nychyporuk won a second term, defeating Ellsworth, who had served a single term when he lost the presidency in 2009.

Ellsworth joined Inco as a labourer in the refinery purification area in 1980, while Nychyporuk started working at the smelter under Inco in 1987. Ellsworth will be sworn in as president of USW Local 6166 again next month.

“To all that supported me in the USW Local 6166 campaign, I am pleased to announce that I have being elected the president of our great local union,” Ellsworth said on his “Les Ellsworth for President USW 6166″ Facebook page last night. “Please be respectful to all that ran in the election. The election is over and we are one union. Thank-you and goodnight.”

Vale, OMNI, Calm Air and CATSA Security unionized workers were eligible to vote in yesterday’s USW Local 6166 election.

The local holds executive elections in April every three years with the winners taking office in May after a short transition period between the old guard and the new guard – or in this instance perhaps, the old new guard. Polls were open yesterday at the Steel Centre at 19 Elizabeth Dr. from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Bob Desjarlais, a past president of USW Local 6166, who served as president of the local from 1994 to 2006, with Ellsworth serving as his vice-president, endorsed his former number two man in yesterday’s election: “Les was a tireless advocate on behalf of our membership,”  said Desjarlais, who now lives in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and is a staff representative with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) United Service Workers West, made up of SEIU Local 1877; SEIU Security Officers United in Los Angeles (SOULA) Local 2006; Security Officers Union SEIU Local 24/7; and SEIU Higher Education Workers United Local 2007, representing in total more than 40,000 janitors, security officers, airport service workers, and other property service workers across California.

Among the others elected along with Ellsworth last night were Phil Hayden as vice-president; Fred Chuckrey as inside guard and Ian Harman as outside guard.

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Steve Ashton: Manitoba’s longest-serving MLA since 1981 resigns from cabinet to seek premiership for a second time

Thompson NDP MLA Steve Ashton, minister of infrastructure and transportation and the marathon man of Manitoba politics, met with Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger this morning and submitted his resignation as minister to run for the leadership of the party and premier’s job. It is Ashton’s second bid to become premier. He lost to Selinger in October 2009. Ashton’s resignation from cabinet is effective at midnight tonight.

Ashton had served as minister of infrastructure and transportation since November 2009. In October 1999, Ashton was first appointed to that ministerial portfolio in what was then the job of minister of highways and government services (the department was renamed in January 2001 as transportation and government services) and he held the post until a September 2002 cabinet shuffle when he moved to to conservation – and so on around the cabinet table over the years –  until he returned to infrastructure and transportation more than five years ago.

Ashton recalled in a conversation with me a few years ago how much satisfaction he had as minister getting to re-jig the Official Highway Map of Manitoba to better reflect Manitoba “North of 53,” pointing perhaps to that interesting mix of policy wonk (he knows his facts and then some) and proud Northerner that he is.

He’s the second NDP MLA to toss his hat into the ring, along with former health minister Theresa Oswald. Both are running to replace Selinger, who is also expected to run for this own job. Last month, five Manitoba NDP provincial cabinet ministers, the so-called Gang of Five, made up of Oswald, Jennifer Howard, Erin Selby, Stan Struthers and Andrew Swan, resigned on the same day, citing concerns over being able to speak their minds in government. Ashton did not join them at the time in resigning.

The deadline to join the race is Jan. 6 and voting is expected to happen in March during the NDP convention.

In his resignation letter to the premier, Ashton writes:

“I would like to thank you for the opportunity to serve in your cabinet as Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation and as Government House Leader. It has been an honour and a privilege to serve the people of Manitoba in a number of senior roles within the Legislature and government as an MLA and Minister.

“Like many others, I regret the public conflict within both the government and party and confusion and negativity this has created with the general public.

“I understand that within all parties, caucuses and cabinets there are always legitimately and strongly held differences of opinions between individuals. I also have respected the long standing traditions of both the party and parliamentary system where those differences have been dealt with internally. If the differences were irreconcilable, the honourable action was for resignations to be offered and Cabinet and caucus solidarity and confidentiality upheld.

“Although we haven’t agreed on all issues over the years, I have respected your position as Premier and the positions of fellow cabinet and caucus members. I believe that you have acted with principle and integrity in your role as Minister and Premier.

“Our government has many accomplishments to be proud of. We have brought in many important initiatives that have enhanced the quality of life for all Manitobans. We should all take credit for the successes we have shared and responsibility for the times we have fallen short of the mark. We all know that we have much more to do, but unfortunately the events of the past few weeks and months have temporarily distracted us from that goal.

“I believe that we are at a crossroads as a party and a government. I believe we must reconnect with Manitobans and put forward a clear vision for our province. We must lead our party and government through this current crisis and beyond. That is why I am entering the leadership race.

“I believe we need to give the party membership the opportunity to choose a Leader who can engage our membership, bring the party back together and reconnect with Manitobans.

“Greg, my entry into the race should not be interpreted as any reflection on your personal commitment and the hard work you and our government have done over the past six years. I have particularly appreciated working with you on such critical issues as fighting major floods and building our core infrastructure. We should be proud of what we have accomplished and I believe that the NDP can continue to enhance the quality of life for all Manitobans.

“I will be tendering my resignation from Cabinet effective 12:00 midnight December 22, 2014 as I believe that it is inappropriate to continue to be a member of Cabinet while competing for the leadership of a party in government. This will enable me to put forward my ideas, hopes and aspirations for a united party based on the principles and long traditions of the NDP and a return to government that translates those fundamental beliefs into positive action.

“I assure you that whatever the outcome of the leadership contest, I remain committed to working with the NDP, our caucus and within government, no matter who the Leader is, to continue to create a better Manitoba.”

There has never been a Manitoba premier from Northern Manitoba. Former NDP premier Gary Doer stepped down in 2009, before being named by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Ashton ran for the party leadership and premier’s job in 2009 against Selinger and former justice minister Andrew Swan, who dropped out of the race early making it a two-way Ashton-Selinger contest.

While Ashton outspent both his rivals in the leadership race in 2009, Selinger  took almost two-thirds of the ballots cast and sailed to victory in the two-way race with 1,317 votes to Ashton’s 685. None of Ashton’s cabinet colleagues, some who had sat around the cabinet table with him for a decade, supported his bid to become premier in 2009, but this may well be a different sort of race in 2015. Ashton is expected to get at least some benefit in certain NDP quarters for remaining loyal during the Gang of Five crisis this past fall, where Selinger named him to replace Swan as government house leader.

There have only been a dozen provincial general elections since the Thompson riding was created in June 1969. Ashton has won three quarters of them – or the last nine – which is every one he has contested.

Ashton, a native of Surrey in England, came to Canada at the age of 11 with his family. His dad was unemployed, he noted in April 2008, when they arrived in Toronto in 1967, and they moved the same year to Thompson.

Ashton, 58, is a leap-year baby, born Feb. 29, 1956. A graduate of R.D. Parker Collegiate in Thompson and the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, he received his M. A. in economics from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and is an economist. He was president of the University of Manitoba Students Union in 1978-79 and has lectured in economics for the former Inter Universities North in Thompson and Cross Lake.

At the age of 25, Ashton was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the Nov. 17, 1981 provincial election for the NDP in the Thompson riding, defeating one-term Progressive Conservative Labour Minister Ken MacMaster, the 47-year-old incumbent elected in 1977, by 72 votes in a race that has entered the realm of local political folklore.  Ashton garnered 2,890 votes to MacMaster’s 2,818. Liberal Cy Hennessey finished dead last with 138 votes. At the time of his first election, Ashton was involved in an Inco strike as a member of Local 6166 of the Steelworkers. Ashton still gets a kick out of pointing out his shift boss voted him for him, saying he would make a better politician than a miner.

In November 2006, looking back at having served 25 years as Thompson’s NDP MLA, Ashton noted, “What matters is getting results,” he said, pointing to former Premier Ed Schreyer and Joe Borowski as two people he looked to for inspiration.

Borowski, Thompson’s first MLA when the new provincial riding came into existence in June 1969, defeated former Thompson mayor Tim Johnston’s father, Dr. Blain Johnston, by seven votes in the Feb. 20, 1969 byelection in the old provincial riding of Churchill. He went on four months later to win the newly created riding in the June 25, 1969 general election.

Ashton joined the NDP because he says he was inspired by what “Joe Borowski and the NDP had done in the North, particularly in terms of highways and what Premier Ed Schreyer and the NDP had done in the North and provincially.” He volunteered in the 1973 campaign and canvassed around Pike and Pickerel crescents where he currently lives.

He worked at Inco numerous times – either as a summer student or full time between 1972 and 1981. This included working in transportation, process technology, maintenance, the smelter and refinery, and finally in 1981 T-1 underground.

To understand the longevity and the consistency of Ashton’s left-of-centre democratically socialist ideology, look back to two key years – first, 1977, and then the fall of 1981 and his first victory as MLA: “To understand 1981 you have to go back to 1977,” Ashton told me in October 2011. “Schreyer and the NDP had been defeated. A few weeks after the election Thompson was hit by major cuts in jobs at Inco. It was also hit with major cuts and layoffs by the Tories. This initially included initially eliminating the Inter Universities North, which was the only university presence we had in the North at the time. Construction on the Limestone Dam was also stopped. The combination devastated Thompson.”

Ashton did not serve in the cabinet of Howard Pawley for the seven years he led the NDP in Manitoba as premier from 1981 to 1988, but easily won re-election in 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011.

The NDP were defeated in the provincial election of 1988 and Ashton served for a time as house leader for the NDP in opposition. He served as labour critic, health critic and led the fight against the privatization of MTS in 1997.

When Doer became premier in October 1999, Ashton was appointed as minister of highways and government services. Following a cabinet shuffle in September 2002, Ashton became minister of conservation. In June 2003, he was also made minister of labour and immigration with responsibility for multiculturalism and administration of The Workers Compensation Act.

In November 2003, he was named as the province’s first minister of water stewardship and in 2007 was shuffled to the post of minister of intergovernmental affairs and minister responsible for emergency measures.

Hari Dimitrakopoulou-Ashton, his wife,teaches mathematics in the business administration program in the Roblin Centre at Red River College in Winnipeg. She is also the author of Women Entrepreneurs in the North. She moved to Thompson with Steve in December 1979.

The Ashtons have two children. Daughter Niki Ashton is serving her second term in the House of Commons as NDP MP for the federal riding of Churchill here in Northern Manitoba. She was first elected to Parliament in October 2008 and re-elected in the May 2011 election. A former instructor at University College of the North (UCN), she is married to Ryan Barker, a local school teacher and an up-and-coming Thompson Playhouse thespian and audience favourite. Steve and Hari’s son, Alexander Ashton, Niki’s younger brother, recently completed a four-year term on the board of trustees of the School District of Mystery Lake, including a stint as board chair. He is a civil technology instructor at UCN and has been living abroad in Europe for the past few months.

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Outspoken British Columbia Osoyoos Indian Band Chief Clarence Louie Thompson Chamber of Commerce keynote speaker Oct. 23

The Thompson Chamber of Commerce is partnering with the Winnipeg-based Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce Oct. 23 to bring in British Columbia’s Osoyoos Indian Band highly successful, highly outspoken and at times controversial long-time Chief Clarence Louie as their keynote speaker for this year’s Northern Business Week.

Last year the chamber brought in Ernesto Sirolli, the Italian-born founder of community economic development enterprise facilitation from Sacramento, California as their keynote speaker for the same event. The Thompson Chamber of Commerce tried unsuccessfully in advance to get both Vale and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc. (MKO), a non-profit, political advocacy organization has represented 30 First Nation communities in Northern Manitoba since 1981, to pick up part of the tab for Sirolli’s speech. When the Thompson Chamber of Commerce released its 2013 financial statements to members at its annual general meeting Feb. 19, the numbers showed a shortfall of more than $7,400 when expenses were balanced off against revenues for last year’s Northern Small Business Week. Keith MacDonald, in his treasurer’s report for 2013, wrote, “We acquired a shortfall this year in our budgeting for Northern Business Week, which reflected a deficit in this area. Having the opportunity to have a high profile speaker as Ernesto Sirolli speak in the City of Thompson will be worth its value in the future. The shortfall was covered by retained earnings that the chamber has carefully invested for an opportunity such as this.”

This year, the Thompson Chamber of Commerce has found a co-sponsor from the get-go in the Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce for Louie’s keynote speech at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 244 on Elizabeth Drive. The Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce was created as the result of a Premier’s Economic Advisory Council Summit under former Manitoba NDP premier Gary Doer 10 years ago. Tickets for the 5:30 pm. event are $80 for members and $100 for non-members and are available from the chamber.

Louie has been chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band for most of the last 30 years. The Osoyoos Indian Reserve, in British Columbia’s southern Okanagan Valley, near Oliver, dates back to 1877, takes in 32,000 acres, and is one of the most prosperous First Nations in Canada, with revenues last year of about $26 million and net profits of about $2.5 million. There is next to no unemployment among the Osoyoos Indian Band’ 520 or so members.

Among the businesses owned by the Osoyoos Indian Development Corporation are Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort & Spa, the  $100-million  Nk’Mip Resort, wit the accommodations portion co-owned and managed by Calgary-based Bellstar Hotels & Resorts, the 18-hole Nk’Mip Canyon Desert Golf Course, Canyon Desert Resort, which is under construction and is a partnership between Osoyoos Indian Development Corporation, Bellstar Developments Inc. and GGC Developments, and OIB Holdings Corporation, which controls land leases to more than 20 per cent of the vineyard grape production in British Columbia  – land leased by such wineries as Mission Hill Winery, Vincor International and Burrowing Owl Vineyards.  Osoyoos Indian Development Corporation also owns 51 per cent of Nk’Mip Cellars, rated on the best wineries in Canada. The remaining 49 per cent is owned by Constellation Brands Inc., the world’s leading wine producer.

Louie has a reputation for making highly controversial remarks and not backing down from them. He doesn’t believe cultural accommodation is going make any long-term improvement when it comes to aboriginal offenders: “If I have to go to one more jailhouse sweat lodge, I’m going to puke,” Louie has reportedly said. “It’s not about spiritual wholeness; it’s about the economy. Inmates need to learn carpentry and plumbing and other skills that will help them make a living when they get out.” The very first project the Thompson Economic Diversification Working Group (TEDWG) pitched to the province three years ago  – unsuccessfully  – was for Thompson to be the site of for a new jail, which would be a primarily aboriginal 220-prisoner “restorative justice” facility. Six months after Vale announced on Nov. 17, 2010 its partial decommissioning here, with plans to close the smelter and refinery, but continue mining and milling, TEDWG was created on May 18, 2011. Members represented 10 stakeholder groups, including the City of Thompson, Vale, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), Keewatin Tribal Council (KTC), Manitoba Métis Federation, Northern Association of Community Councils, Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, Thompson Unlimited, the Thompson Chamber of Commerce and – belatedly – the Province of Manitoba. USW Local 6166, which represents unionized workers at Vale’s Manitoba Operations, declined an invitation to join TEDWG.

Louie is also known for saying things like, “Be here at 9 o’clock sharp. No Indian time.”

Louie attended what is now First Nations University in Regina and later spent two years at the  University of Lethbridge. He ran successfully for chief in 1984 at the age of 23, lost the job in 1989, but was re-elected again in 1991.

Sirolli’s visit here last year as keynote speaker came as local businesses stood at a crossroads as the implementation work coming out of almost 2½ years of TEDWG needed to begin in earnest.

Some members of the chamber have spent a good part of the last  year trying to work out a plan that would see Sirolli return to Thompson from California in a follow-up visit to work on a community economic development enterprise facilitation project.

Vale paid out $2.5 million in cash over the 2½- year period to fund TEDWG, mainly using Toronto-based consultants rePlan, a Canadian firm with decades of experience helping resource-based companies and communities adapt to change, and their subcontractors, such as Heather Buttrum and Jim McGimpsey of Hamilton, Ont.-based On Three Communication, who worked on a “place branding initiative,” which the City of Thompson has yet to roll out. Buttrum is now a principal at Rain Communications Inc.

Place branding refers to how people view a place based on the experience they have had with it and involves using traditional marketing and branding techniques to try to help communities and regions improve their image.

Sirolli developed the concept of enterprise facilitation 29 years ago in Esperance, a small rural coastal community in Western Australia and now head the Sirolli Institute in Sacramento, California. Esperance, an isolated coastal town of 8,500, had 500 people registered as unemployed in 1985, and a recent quota on fishing tuna that shrunk the local fishing industry.

“Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!” Sirolli has famously said many times.

In 1999, Louie received the Aboriginal Business Leader Award from All Nations Trust and Development Corporation. In 2000, the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO) named Chief Louie the “Economic Developer of the Year.”  Maclean’s Magazine listed Louie as one of the “Top 50 Canadians to Watch” in their January 2003 issue, while was named to the Order of British Columbia, the province’s highest honour for outstanding achievement, in June 2006.

Vale Canada Limited fined $150,000 for workplace safety conviction in connection with death of T-3 scooptram operator Greg Leason

Vale Canada Limited has been fined $150,000 in provincial court in Winnipeg and ordered to pay $37,500 in a victim surcharge after pleading guilty June 18 in a previously unreported decision to one count of failing to ensure the safety, health and welfare of all workers, contrary to The Workplace Safety and Health Act, in connection with the death of 51-year-old T-3 scooptram operator Greg Leason at Manitoba Operations in Thompson almost three years ago.

Vale was charged last Oct. 3. The Leason case marked the first time Vale, or its predecessor, Inco, had been charged by the province in connection with a mining fatality since mining began in Thompson,

The charge upon which Vale was convicted and nine other charges laid against Vale by Manitoba Labour and Immigration’s Workplace Safety and Health Branch, also under The Workplace Safety and Health Act, in connection with the the death of Leason, which were ordered stayed, all listed an offence date of Oct. 7, 2011, the date of the accident. While stayed charges technically can be re-activated  within one year of the day they are stayed by the prosecution, in practice they almost never are, unless the accused is charged with new offences during the one year period after the original charges have been stayed. When charges are withdrawn instead of stayed, the prosecution of those charges is finished immediately.

Leason died at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg 12 days after the scooptram he was operating, while installing a safety bumper at the 3500 level of the T-3 mine on Oct. 7, 2011, fell into a 30 to 45-metre deep pit in the mine.

A co-worker who had arrived at the open stope to assist Leason with the installation of a rockfill bumper, which serves as a barrier, discovered that the scooptram had entered the void and fallen to the level below. Leason was quickly located by co-workers who immediately began the evacuation process. Thompson Fire and Emergency Services met them underground and Leason was rushed to Thompson General Hospital as a result of the accident, which occurred during a regular shift.

After being stabilized, he was medevaced via Lifeflight Air Ambulance to Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre where he succumbed to his injuries on Oct. 19, 2011, almost two weeks after the accident, with family, including his fiancé Debbie Petroff, and his close friend, Wayne Skwarchuk, by his side. Leason had just turned 51 and had 23 years of service with the company. Many of Leason’s other close friends were with him throughout his time in hospital. Besides Skwarchuk, Terry Didluck, Garry Schultz, Guy Thompson, Dan Dnistransky, Victor Monan, Marlin Katchmar, Vince Nowlin, along with many other friends and acquaintances, were at the hospital.

Leason was born Oct. 16, 1960 in Regina and moved to Thompson in 1965 and lived here for the remainder of his life.

The nine stayed charges included failing to comply with The Workplace Safety and Health Act  and regulations; contravening the act by not providing not providing and maintaining a safe workplace, equipment, systems and tools; breaching a regulation by failing to develop and implement safe work procedures for users of powered mobile equipment where powered mobile equipment is used in the workplace;  failing to train workers in safe work procedures for powered mobile equipment in a workplace where powered mobile equipment is used; failing to ensure that workers comply with safe work procedures for powered mobile equipment in a workplace where powered mobile equipment is used;  three counts of breaching Manitoba Regulation 217/2006 S. 22.3(1)(a) by failing to ensure that powered mobile equipment is inspected by a competent person for defects and unsafe conditions as often as necessary to ensure equipment is in safe operating condition; and  failing to ensure that when powered mobile equipment is in use, the operator and any other worker required or permitted to be in or on the equipment use seats and seatbelts or other restraining devices.

As the Leason case marked the first time Vale, or its predecessor, Inco, had been charged by the province in connection with a mining fatality since mining began in Thompson, USW Local 6166 president Murray Nychyporuk said it sent an important symbolic message about workplace safety in the Manitoba mining industry, although charges had been laid, convictions registered and fines imposed on other mining companies elsewhere in the province previously. “I think it’s a clear message by the mines’ branch that you have to provide a safe workplace and they’re going to be very strict,” Nychyporuk said.

Ryan Land, manager of corporate affairs and organizational development for Vale’s Manitoba Operations, said in a statement on behalf of the company Oct. 1, “The health and safety of our employees is our highest priority. The tragic loss of Greg Leason is another reminder that we can never relax in our efforts to manage risk effectively and ensure that incidents like this are never repeated. Our thoughts continue to be with his family, friends and co-workers.”

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Agreement-in-principle reached with federal government on environmental sulphur dioxide (SO2) airbone emission standards that will allow Vale’s Manitoba Operations smelter to stay open until 2018, mayoral candidate Luke Robinson and USW Local 6166 president Murray Nychyporuk say

Vale has reached an agreement-in-principle with the federal government that will allow it to continue to operate its 53-year-old smelter in Thompson until sometime in 2018, say mayoral candidate Luke Robinson and USW Local 6166 president Murray Nychyporuk.  Pending environmental sulphur dioxide (SO2) airborne emission standards that were due to come into effect  in a few months, as applied to Vale’s Manitoba Operations, would have required its closure if Vale couldn’t meet the standards. The new standards would require a reduction in airborne emissions of approximately 88 per cent from current levels at the Thompson operation, Vale has said previously.

More than 30 per cent of Vale’s production employees in Thompson work in the smelter and refinery. Employees hired before Oct. 1, 2011, have the option to transfer to the mill or underground to the mines from surface operations when the smelter and refinery close under the company’s transition plan.

The announcement that the smelter and refinery would close was originally made on Nov. 17, 2010, with Vale saying at the time it was “phasing out of smelting and refining by 2015” in Thompson. Mining and milling operations are slated to continue.

Almost two years later, in October 2012, Vale announced a possible one-year extension for the Thompson smelter and refinery, contingent on federal sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission standards approvals, to no later than Dec. 31, 2015 because of construction delays at the now open state-of-the-art hydromet processing facility in Long Harbour in southeast Newfoundland on Placentia Bay on the western Avalon Peninsula, about 100 kilometres from St. John’s. It will also process sulphide concentrate feed produced at Voisey’s Bay in Labrador, which has been processed in Thompson. The Long Harbour plant is Vale’s first processing facility in Canada located on tidewater. Long Harbour was originally scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2013.

Robinson, a first-term incumbent councillor, running in the Oct. 22 municipal election for the open mayoral seat being vacated by Mayor Tim Johnston, who is not seeking re-election to council, against Dennis Fenske, another first-term incumbent councillor, who is Vale’s engineering supervisor of support services for central engineering and the project management office here, said Sept. 22 at a regular council meeting Vale has reached an agreement with the federal government on the sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission standards that will allow the smelter to stay open into 2018.  Robinson is a mechanical underground worker at Vale.

The Thompson smelter and refinery, which opened March 25, 1961, was the free world’s first fully integrated nickel operation and built at a cost of $185 million.

The Canada-Wide Acid Rain Strategy for Post-2000 was agreed to in 1998 by federal, provincial and territorial ministers of energy and environment to fulfill an earlier commitment in their 1994 “Statement of Intent on Long-Term Acid Rain Management in Canada,” which in turn built on the 1985 Eastern Canada Acid Rain Program.  Sulphur dioxide emissions in Canada have decreased 63 per cent since 1985, thanks mostly to a reduction of the amounts produced by base metal smelters due to a combination of a code of practice and implementation of pollution prevention plans, the Winnipeg-based Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment reported last year. The president of the council is Manitoba NDP  Minister of Conversation and Water Stewardship Gord Mackintosh.

Their 2010-2011 progress report on acid rain strategy for after 2000, released early last year, reported that  Manitoba was the third-largest emitter of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in Canada in 2010, accounting for 14 per cent of the total, behind only Alberta at 27 per cent and Ontario at 20 per cent.

SO2 emissions from Manitoba in 2010 were down 44 per cent from their 2008 level, to 197,000 tonnes from 350,000 tonnes, thanks in part to the closure that year of Hudbay’s copper smelter in Flin Flon, which was expected to reduce total emissions of SO2 by 185,000 tonnes per year. That was the largest relative decrease in S02 emissions in any province over the same two-year period.

The scheduled closure of Vale’s smelter in Thompson is expected to reduce the amount of sulphur dioxide emitted in Manitoba by another 185,000 tonnes, the report said. Together, those two smelters in Flin Flon and Thompson had accounted for the bulk of the emissions produced by the nonferrous mining and smelting sector, which was responsible for 98 per cent of all SO2 emissions in Manitoba.

Liz Dykman, programs co-ordinator for the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, told soundingsjohnbarker (https://soundingsjohnbarker.wordpress.com/) Sept. 25 the “2010/11 report is indeed the latest report on the Canada-wide Acid Rain Strategy for Post-2000.  A 2012/13 report is currently being drafted. CCME does not have any more recent reports on refinery and smelter mining operation SO2 emissions.”

USW Local 6166 president Murray Nychyporuk said in an interview Sept. 25 with soundingsjohnbarker he believes the deal with Vale the federal government, which was discussed by the bargaining teams during recent contract negotiations, is essentially an agreement-in-principle that would allow Vale to continue to operate the smelter and refinery through some point in 2018 on environmental grounds.

Nychyporuk said it’s not clear to him at this point if the deal would run right until the end of 2018 on Dec. 31.

He also said he understood agreement-in-principle means there will likely be some public comment period, for perhaps written comments or a town hall meeting, where people would have the opportunity to make representations on the issue of the new sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission standards not going into force for Vale next year, as previously expected, before the federal government grants its final environmental approval.

Nychyporuk also said it is important to keep in mind also that environmental approval is not the same thing as a business case for Vale keeping the smelter and refinery open into 2018, although he suggests it is unlikely the company would jump through all the necessary legal regulatory environmental hoops to keep the smelter and refinery open if they didn’t plan to carry on operating it during at least most of the extended three-year period. However, Nychyporuk said nickel is a cyclical market, subject to wide price swing flucations, and a big downturn in nickel prices, or the need to do major capital repairs at the smelter if something big should break down, could influence the company to close it before 2018 even with an environmental green light. Conversely, a strong market and high demand might mean Vale will want to keep the smelter and refinery open even beyond 2018, he added, saying there is just no way of knowning that this far in advance. “I don’t have a crystal ball,” Nychyporuk deadpanned.

Nickel was selling on the London Metal Exchange (LME) Sept. 25 for a  spot price of around US$7.82 per pound. At the beginning of 2014, nickel was about US$6.50 per pound, compared to just under US$8 per pound a year earlier. Nickel prices peaked at US$25.51 per pound on the LME in May 2007 just months after Vale bought Inco in a US$19.9-billion all-cash tender takeover offer deal in October 2006. Mining is a cyclical business involving finite resources. Manitoba Operations produces nickel, copper, cobalt and has associated gold, silver, platinum, sulphur, selenium and palladium deposits.

Mark Scott, general manager of mining and milling for Vale’s Manitoba Operations, sounded a cautionary note on the possibility of the smelter and refinery remaining open beyond next year when he spoke to about 30 members and guests at the Thompson Chamber of Commerce’s weekly luncheon May 28, saying the “base case remains” that they both “will close at some point in 2015.” In addition to sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission standards issues, there also remained questions over availability of nickel sulphide concentrate feed, Scott said.

Ryan Land, manager of corporate affairs and organizational development for Vale’s Manitoba Operations, said May 6,  “Vale remains very much committed to Thompson. Largely as a result of challenging market conditions, and in order to align with the ramp-up of projects (which at some point may include a concentrate load-out facility for Thompson), there may be an opportunity to keep the smelter and refinery in operation for an extended duration.

“As a result, we do continue to participate in discussions with the federal government and have requested further flexibility on the date for meeting the emissions targets. We did previously receive approval to operate the plants until the end of 2015, which is already very positive for the community and our employees. While we are hopeful that we can further extend the deadline, we will still transition to mining-and-milling-only at some point between 2016 and 2019.”

Land said in an e-mail follow-up Sept. 29, “We have a tentative agreement with the federal government to allow for the operation of the smelter up to Jan.1, 2019, until such time as the concentrate load-out facility is completed. This is subject to the completion of satisfactory terms within an Environmental Performance Agreement with Environment Canada, pending the submission and approval of a performance plan.”

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