If anyone needs further proof to Vale’s global social neglect, it comes in a pair of dirty deeds committed by the Brazilian mining company in and after the bitter 2009-10 strike at a major nickel and copper operation in Sudbury, Ontario, says global union federation ICEM.
One involves circumstances surrounding two deaths inside Vale’s Frood-Stobie Mine on 8 June 2011 and the other is added legal proof that Vale’s strong-arm tactics in firing union activists during the United Steelworkers (USW) strike was meant to hinder legal collective bargaining.
An extensive report issued on 29 February by the USW over the June 2011 deaths of Jordan Fram, 26, an equipment operator, and Jason Chenier, 35, a supervisor, was done because Vale refused the offer of the USW to investigate the accident jointly.
USW blames negligent water drainage maintenance directly tied to lax and ‘little experience or training’ of front-line supervisors.
Fram and Chenier were buried 900 metres underground by an overflow of muck, a term for an avalanche of wet rock, gravel, sand, water washing down a mine shaft.
Even though USW Local 6500 is the legitimate bargaining representative, the report notes, ‘Vale officials refused to be interviewed by members of the USW team’ even though union members ‘cooperated fully in management’s investigation.’
The week before USW issued the report, the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) ruled that Vale violated provincial labour law by maintaining a ‘patently unreasonable’ stance over nine workers Vale fired for strike activity.
The OLRB agreed with the USW that the nine trade unionists were denied rights to third-party arbitration by the company, and further cited Vale for ‘troubling’ labour relations conduct across several areas.
In January, the OLRB cited Vale with union interference for denying entry onto company property for one of the nine discharged workers who is the elected head of Local 6500’s Grievance Committee.
The USW is now confident that arbitrated decisions will prevail and the nine workers will return to their rightful jobs.
The USW District Director for Ontario and the Atlantic Region, Wayne Fraser, said the OLRB’s 24 February ruling ‘should give Vale pause to consider the hardship inflicted on families,’ adding that the unlawful conduct ‘prolonged the suffering and uncertainty for families in our community.’
Vale’s safety record in Canada was tarnished again on 29 January 2012 when 47-year-old Stephen Perry, an explosives worker, was crushed to death when a rock face collapsed on him while he was working in a lift basket.
This death occurred 1,300 metres inside Vale’s Coleman nickel mine near Sudbury.
A fourth Canadian Vale death in 2011 occurred on 19 October when 51-year-old scooptram operator Greg Leason was killed when his machine fell 40 metres into a cavern inside the T-3 Mine in Thompson, Manitoba.
Historically, the four 2011 deaths at Vale in Canada are atypical because the USW is a vigilant proponent of joint labour-management process safety procedures that prevent workplace accidents.
But with Vale’s hostile labour relations still simmering some 20 months after the strike, no cooperation with the union over health and safety issues is proving detrimental to workplace safety.
Publishing its report on February 29th into the deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram, the USW said: ‘Based on the results of a damning investigative report into a double fatality at Stobie Mine in Sudbury, the United Steelworkers (USW) is calling on the Ontario Government to consider laying criminal charges against officials and management of Vale, the mine’s owner, and against the company itself.’
The USW said the government must also immediately establish a Commission of Inquiry into Mine Safety.
USW Local 6500 said that the two miners died after a torrent of wet mud and ore flooded the tunnel where they were working.
The USW investigation found that Vale management had ignored on-going problems with flooding in the mine.
The 207-page report shows the torrent of mud and ore was created by excess water in levels above where Chenier and Fram were killed. The water on those levels was four and five feet deep.
The International President of the Steelworkers, Leo Gerard said: ‘Vale showed a reckless disregard for the safety of its employees at the Stobie mine, something that could warrant criminal charges.
‘Following an explosion at the Westray Mine, the Canadian Criminal Code was amended making it a criminal offence to ignore workers’ health and safety.’
Jordan Fram’s sister supports the union’s call for a Commission of Inquiry into Mine Safety.
‘Jordan’s death was a huge loss for our family, and for his large circle of friends,’ says Briana Fram. ‘My family and I want the Commission of Inquiry to make sure this doesn’t happen again to any miner.’
USW Local 6500 began its investigation into the fatalities after Vale management broke from past practice and put limits and restrictions on a joint investigation into the deaths.
The USW report found a number of other safety problems that management had ignored at the Stobie Mine.
l Workers described repeated hang-ups, or obstructions, in the ore-pass, or passage, that carried material down to the level where Chenier and Fram were working.
Clearing these hang ups is one of the most dangerous jobs in underground mining. The USW believes Chenier and Fram were trying to do exactly that when wet ore burst out and buried them.
• Jason Chenier erected double guardrails, or barriers, to prevent the dumping of any more wet ore into the problem-plagued ore-pass.
The company has provided no explanation for the removal of the guardrails.
‘We believe Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram would be alive today if Vale management had followed Chenier’s warnings,’ says USW Local 6500 President Rick Bertrand.
Bertrand and Wayne Fraser, the Director of USW District 6 (Ontario and Atlantic Canada) say the investigation uncovered so many problems with health and safety at the Stobie mine that it requires a full Public Inquiry into safety at Stobie, and into mining safety throughout the province.
‘It’s been 30 years since the last significant health and safety inquiry,’ says Fraser, ‘and the mining industry has gone through some very significant changes since then.’
Rick Bertrand noted that since a Public Inquiry may not complete its work for several years, action is required now to safeguard miners’ lives.
‘Steelworkers across Ontario demand that the Ontario Minister of Labour, the Minister responsible for worker health and safety in Ontario, must also immediately appoint a Committee under current health and safety legislation, to review whether the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, and that Act’s enforcement, are actually safeguarding workers in underground mines and surface mining plants in Ontario.’
The USW report made a total of 165 recommendations to improve safety at Stobie and other Vale mines in Sudbury as well as mines across Ontario.
The USW recommendations range from changes to health and safety rules, improvements in drainage practices and blasting procedures, to a ban on the dumping of wet ore.
