Dear Editor,
My name is Alan Chatfield. I have been a Steelworker for 36 years. On Tuesday I refused to work at 777 North Mine with an Atlas Copco mechanic because I believed he was outside his care and maintenance contract.
I generated a meeting with senior management, my coworkers and union steward. Management’s interpretation of Atlas Copco’s care and maintenance encompasses just about everything on a jumbo – the same as Cat, Scandic, MacLean and others encompass the bolters, trucks and scoops.
No wonder IAM has a problem with contracting out. On top of this they are waiting on North ramp to break through and $30 million of new equipment will be sent down. This doesn’t sound too good for our friends, family and coworkers on the picket lines, does it?
They are on legal strike. The company said they wouldn’t use replacement workers, but they are.
They have legitimate issues. If they wouldn’t have taken a stand, we may still be talking about our benefits that we already had in our CBAs.
In regards to pensions: There are employees with over 40 years’ seniority not able to retire because the company pension is not enough.
For the employees who have put money away in RRSPs on their own and would like to retire at 55 with 37 years’ seniority, the penalties are huge. The penalty is six per cent per year, which is 18 per cent of pension gone for leaving early, and on top of that they lose their benefits.
Heaven forbid you leave at 54 with 36 years’ seniority, you lose all bridging and 24 per cent of base pension. That works out to roughly 50 per cent of pension for leaving four years early. Thanks for your service.
In regards to wages: Wages need to be somewhat competitive all the way up. We have lost a lot of good employees – union and management – for the simple fact that they can make a lot more money somewhere else. We train apprentices, and then they take all of their new energy and skills somewhere else.
In regard to grievances: With grievances taking up to two years, the unions sometimes believe that taking away the 12-hour shift agreement gets management talking, but the repercussions are huge.
The monetary loss for the company is probably into the millions, not to mention the upset employees and the money they are losing in bonuses, etc., but I understand what they must feel.
If a company cannot get a grievance to arbitration within six months, the company should lose the grievance. Grievance done.
In regards to company testing policy for new hires: I am not sure if this is one of the union’s issues, but there is a problem.
We don’t need rocket scientists, and you don’t need algebra to run a jackleg or for any job underground for that matter. A Grade 12 and a strong back should be good enough.
I know miners with no high school education at all, and they are some of the best miners I have had the pleasure of working with. Stop contracting out our Steelworker jobs.
In regards to respect: When I was president of Local 7106, in the ’90s, the company treated unions with respect, and we treated them the same.
I am not saying we didn’t have problems, but if we did the CEO Peter Jones (the first Peter Jones) would show us the respect to fix the problem with us.
I only wish he could have been around for the financial good times – in my estimate roughly $2 billion in profits over the past 15 years. I am pretty sure we would have solved a lot of the problems that have worsened over the last 15 years, but he is not here and new management decided to take the job on by themselves.
At the end of the day, I hope that management can meet with all unions together again. I am sure together they can solve the issues and start making us all money again. You cannot have a strong company without a strong union.
For now we are here: one union on strike and the others not far behind. Yes, I believe Steelworkers are not far behind unless someone from management that has the power to fix these problems steps up.
In June, when we cast our ballots, it won’t be just about the Steelworkers, it will be about the deal that IAM gets, too.
We will never sign a deal that has us riding buses with tinted windows through a picket line and working with scabs.
Alan Chatfield
Flin Flon
