A Year of Rumors

As I said in one of my earlier blogs, 2008 could be a very interesting year for me. Probably the biggest wildcard for me this year would be at work, where a number of things may or may not happen. Our union's contract with the company expires on September 1, 2008. I experienced the company's last contract negotiations back in 2004 when I was a summer student and I can tell you, it was something I'll never forget. At that time, the company "threatened" to hire replacement workers to run the mine - so the word "scab" became a frequently used word throughout the mill; written on bathroom stalls and basically anything that could be written on. There were many rumors flying around about bringing in immigrants to run the plant. The company even planned to house the replacement workers on mine property as they started bringing trailers on company property a week prior to the strike deadline. Needless to say, the union never did strike as a contract was approved three days prior and ratified a week later. But, who's to say that'll happen this year.

The mine that I work at is on its last legs; I guess you could say. It has been in operation since the late 1960's and has mined millions of tons of iron ore from its large open pit. The ore reserves are expected to be exhausted by the year 2010, meaning the mine would be subject to closure if back-up plans weren't in place. Probably the biggest news that breathed new life into the old mine was the annoucement of a nugget plant that would be built near the old mine facility. It would create a ton of new construction jobs and would produce about 500,000 tons of nuggets a year. The nuggets are different from the pellets that we currently make. It's a completely different process used to create the nuggets; one that I am still quite fuzzy on. It basically re-invigorates the process used to create iron ore by incorporating new technology and equipment into the mix. This was all great news to those that work at the mine and was something that really rose the spirits of not only the employees, but for community members as well. But eventually we found out about the company's true intentions of the nugget plant and soon the picture wasn't as rosy as we invisioned.

The nugget plant would basically operate as its own company and be managed by the current company that operates the current mine. None of us that are employed with the mine would be eligible to work unless we quit first and then tried applying at the new plant. And what exactly are the chances that any of us would get hired at this new plant? The control room operator of the plant would be a salaried position and there would be no retirement plan in place. So for those of us that are currently employed with the existing mine, this really doesn't not sound all that appealing; not as great as it earlier seemed. I guess many of the details are still being worked out and many things are subject to change. Hopefully there is a better outcome to this than there is at this moment.

So the mine is running out of ore reserves in its pit, which would mean the possible closing of the facility by 2010. It has already been annouced earlier this month that the mine will be cutting back on its production; going from a 5.0 million ton operation to 2.8 million tons. Currently the mine is operated into four sections; one section being the original plant and the three other sections being additions made to the original structure. We only run one grinding line in the original plant, while section number two, three, and four have many grinding lines running. After June 2008, only the grinding lines in the fourth section of the plant will be running, with a few limited mills running in the third section. This is a dramatic cutback to how things are running now. With that news comes the likelyhood of cutbacks in staffing at the plant. It has already been rumored that 20% of operating (the department I am in) will be eliminated by the second half of the year. So as you can see, this could be a very tumultuous time for many people that work at the mine. But honestly, a lot of things could change between then and now.

There are some people who believe every little thing that comes out of the mouth of the company and there are those who choose to be resilient in these times of adversity. There are a lot of "positive" rumors out there including that we'll continue to maintain our current production levels throughout all of 2008. But then there are also other rumors that include us running more than one flux mill (flux stone is used in the production of iron ore pellets), which will help to supply our mill, the neighboring mine, and the new nugget plant with flux. There is also talk that additional ore reserves have been found and they are in the initial testing stages to see whether our facility can create pellets from these ore bodies. The point of all of this is that rumors are flying rampant all of the time regarding the mine's future. You just don't know what to believe until something really happens. I remember when I was a summer student in 2003 and they only gave the mine five more years in which we could process iron ore. It's five years later now and we anticipate running until 2010 at least; except at reduced capacity. So needless to say, things can change in a hurry. I am not going to worry about the impending doom and gloom. I'll believe it when it actually happens. When you work in the steel industry, you always experience your ups and downs. That's how it's been for my dad during his 35 years of employment. There were a couple of different times where he thought he'd never go back to the mine. But things change and the industry changes. Right now the price of metal is incredibly high. As long as this trend continues, the company is going to find any little way in which they can produce ore at our facility, whether it'll be using our current methods or implementing new technological advances. Time will tell what actually happens at our facility. Right now, all we can do is take it one day at a time.