Vol. 81/No. 14 April 10, 2017
Idaho miners strike against union busting, for safety
“What they really want is to bust the union, to get things back to where they were in the 1930s,” Ron Pearce, who has worked at the mine for 38 years, told Mary Martin, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Seattle March 26 on the picket line. “We have already sacrificed and given a whole lot and now they want new sacrifices. But we have built up a strong union here.”
The union contract expired in May last year and the company offered a “last and final” concession-filled offer. Hecla bosses told the union it would impose these changes on the workers March 13. The workers then went on strike that day.
The changes demanded by the company include dangerous loss of workers’ right to choose their jobs and crews; loss of production bonuses key to their yearly income; recall rights from layoffs and mine closures slashed from three years to three months; and the right of the company to raise premiums and deductibles for health insurance at any time.
The company’s decision to take over crew assignments is a major reason for the strike. “We work in very dangerous conditions, where everybody’s got to watch each other’s back,” Phil Epler, the local union president, told the Spokesman-Review.
Company spokesperson Luke Russell told the paper the change is needed in order to “lower production costs.”
The miners work more than a mile underground where the deep shafts are prone to rock bursts, which can cause the walls and roof to collapse.
Two miners, Larry Marek and Brandon Gray, were killed in separate mine accidents in 2011. Federal officials held the company responsible for both deaths. A month after Gray was killed, another rock burst injured seven more miners. The Mine Safety and Health Administration ordered the mine closed for a year for a long list of repairs.
“Our main thing is safety,” Epler said. “We’ve had enough bad things happening at the Lucky Friday.”
“There was no question we had to go on strike,” said Joe Ploharz, 28, in the union hall. “We’re exposed to rock dust, road dirt and bio diesel fuel.”
“The bio diesel fuel peels paint off the underground equipment,” another miner said. “Makes you wonder what it’s doing to us.”
“Some of the older miners were worried about us younger miners going into the strike. But we’re all here,” said Chris Lockard, 24. “To beat this as a small community we have to become as one. A handful of us picketing is not enough.
“We need to show the company that it’s not just affecting 250 miners but its affecting thousands — our family members and others in the area,” he said. “I will stand on the picket line as long as needed.”
Solidarity from the community and other unions is strong. Money has come from USW Local 338 at Kaiser Aluminum in Spokane and USW Local 175 at Port Townsend Paper, which donated $5,000. Miners said both the Teamster truck drivers who haul rock waste from the plant and the union UPS drivers are refusing to cross the picket lines.
“We had a strike last year that brought our people together and we are still strong,” said Jerry Womble, member of Machinists Local 86 at Triumph Composite Systems in Spokane. “Once we found out these miners were on strike we knew we would help. This comes from our own experience of getting support. We found that the first couple of weeks on strike and off work is fun and exciting. After that it gets serious and the support is really needed.”
“All the wives back the men and our families. We stand beside and help fight,” said Tiffany Talley, an office worker and one of a number of miners’ family members on the picket line. Her husband Beau Talley works as a truck driver at the mine. “When I’m not at work I am down here and I bring him my son to teach him to help daddy win.”
Visiting with workers door to door in Mullan, Martin met Becky Altman and her neighbor Ian Wolford. Altman is a retired union road maintenance worker who has a son on strike at Lucky Friday, a daughter who works as a geologist in the nearby Galena Mine, and a son-in-law who is a gold miner in Alaska. “Miners need to be supported,” she said. “We see corporate greed at work — from here to Standing Rock.”
Martin said she will use her campaign to win solidarity for the miners wherever she goes.
“I definitely support the miners 100 percent,” said Wolford, who works in a fiberglass factory. “I’d say everyone in their right mind should support the miners because we are all affected by what happens here.”
Messages and donations can be sent to: USW Local 5114, P.O. Box 427, Mullan, Idaho 83846. More information can be found on the local’s Facebook page.
Related articles:
On the Picket Line
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