The head of Hudbay’s largest union is deeply concerned over how workforce “bumping” has and will be handled, but the company says it is simply following the terms of the contract.
Tom Davie said Hudbay has taken the position that any future bumps – instances of workers displacing colleagues based on seniority – will not permit Flin Flon workers to relocate to Snow Lake operations.
“Snow Lake members were able to bump into positions in Flin Flon when operations were shut down in the past,” said Davie, president of USW Local 7106. “There have been no language changes in the last 23 years to indicate that Hudbay is right in doing this. If we don’t get this resolved quickly, I believe Hudbay has put the first nail in the coffin in our community, let alone our membership.”
USW also contends Hudbay did not follow the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) when it recently cancelled its development-miner training program at 777 mine. The decision meant three trainees had to be transferred elsewhere within the company.
Davie said those trainees should have been bumped into LHD (load, haul, dump) positions underground, with four less tenured employees then bumping into the metallurgical plant or to Snow Lake.
Another option would have been to let the trainees complete their training at Snow Lake operations, he said.
Davie said the union has filed grievances over the situation, calling it “a gross injustice to our membership.”
But Rob Winton, head of Hudbay’s Manitoba operations, said the CBA does not currently permit the type of bumping Davie describes.
“The union-company relationship is guided by agreements, either outside the CBA or during the negotiation process,” he said.
“There is…no agreement in place to manage reductions in workforce other than the CBA, which was the case during the smelter closure [in 2010].”
Winton said the union is entitled to grieve the development-miner trainee bumps, adding that Hudbay is confident in its position.
If Flin Flon workers cannot bump into Snow Lake and future reductions occur, Davie said USW faces the prospect of some members with decades of seniority losing their jobs while junior workers stay employed.
“This will leave some of our most senior employees out of work just years before they will eligible to retire,” he said.
Davie called Hudbay’s human resources department “very inexperienced,” saying it had “never done a bump nor did they include the union in any official discussions on how we did it in the past” after the development-miner training ended.
“Their only comment to this is that both sides never followed the CBA the last three times we did a bump,” he said. “We wonder how they would know since none were involved.”
Winton voiced his support for the human resources department, saying its members are “very experienced and have delivered great results for Hudbay,” adding the previous group did not manage the CBA appropriately.
For his part, Davie said USW is looking at all options to try and get Hudbay to live up to the CBA, including putting its members on eight-hour shifts rather than 12-hour shifts.
The union and the company both prefer 12-hour shifts, but in the past workers have temporarily worked eight-hour shifts as a pressure tactic or in an effort to preserve jobs.
“It would be a last resort, but it may need to happen,” Davie said.
He said the development-miner trainee program cancellation directly impacted three trainees, but over 10 workers were affected by the bumping that resulted.
