BC At Work, Episode 5, Video

Bev Morrow [00:02:07] It was [19]76 when I started up here, early [19]76, and I went to BC Mining School in Rossland. I took a three month course there and it gave you all the basic ideas of how mining was done. I guess that’s where the jobs were, there’s lots of jobs and it was good paying jobs. Plus my dad, he used to work underground and now construction and I’ve always Iiked the old farm equipment, you go down to Saskatchewan in the summer. I guess had an attraction to, you know, it was challenging to run that.

Judy Pal [00:02:41] What’s it like spending 12 hours a day in an open pit mine?

Bev Morrow [00:02:45] Good, really good. I’ve been treated just like one of the guys. I’ve never had any problem working up here. You know, you do your work and the guys respect you for it. Everybody gets some teasing now and then, but then I guess I hand out lots.

Judy Pal [00:03:01] I couldn’t resist the opportunity to go for a ride in her pickup. Bev spoke in such an offhand manner about it, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to drive a 250-ton earth mover. Climbing the 30 feet to the cab, I wondered what it would be like behind the wheel, three stories above the ground, driving down the mountain to pick up a load of waste rock. Tilt steering, dashboard, a little more complicated than my car, but not too intimidating. It’s not a BMW, but it does have most of the comforts of home, including AM-FM radio.

Bev Morrow [00:03:50] We receive a good station up here and it makes driving a lot better for 12 hours if you have the FM radio and they’re automatic so they’re actually just you have to get used to the size of them and know how to use your mirrors and you’ll be alright. Even you could drive one.

Judy Pal [00:04:11] Taking on our 180 metric ton load, it was reassuring to realize that these vehicles are equipped with four separate braking systems – hydraulic, electrical, mechanical and air brakes. As we headed down the mountain, Bev explained that Fording would be extracting coal from this mountain well into the 21st century, and as a result of current environmental protection laws, long after all the coal is gone, these trucks and the workers at Fording, members of United Steelworkers of America, Local 7884, will be working to reclaim this mountain. Using waste rock now being stockpiled, they will as closely as possible return this mountain to its original state. By the mid-21st century, when this site is reclaimed in its natural state, future generations may never realize that once an open-pit coal mine existed here. Working 12-hour shifts could affect your social life, but Bev’s husband also works at the mine.

Bev Morrow [00:05:34] I met him on, I guess, G-Shift. I was working G-shift then. Quite a large crew, so it just sort of seemed to fall together there on days off. When I was running shovel, he used to drive truck. Well, he still does drive  truck on that same shift. A lot of times I’d end up loading him, but there’s lots of days you never see him until the end of the shift. Yeah, I’d guess it’s just a place where you meet people. Lots of guys around, I guess.

Speaker 5 [00:06:03] Oh, well, I just started my job. It’s just three weeks old, and I just love it. Meeting people, helping teachers, it’s just great.

Scott Swanson [00:06:13] Coming up, the Sullivan Mine Rescue Team.

Janice Meierhofer [00:06:22] Thank you. Enjoy your stay, sir. Whether it’s a good meal, a good night’s rest, or friendly and helpful service, we’re here to make good times better in BC.

Ian Robb [00:06:31] You know, it’s really fun to meet people from all over the world and I enjoy sharing this beautiful province and I’m proud to be a member of Local 40.

Nick Worhaug [00:06:37] The hospitality industry is the second largest in BC. We know our work is important to all British Columbians. Working with other trade unions, the business community and the public. We make the good times better in BC.

Art Gruntman [00:06:50] I’m Art Gruntman, Western Vice President of the Canadian Paperworkers’ Union. Our members are hard at work in pulp, paper and related industries all over BC. A good example is Scott Paper in New Westminster, where 560 proud members produce a wide range of products using state-of-the-art technology. For 46 years, the CPU has represented the Scott employees. Our union, the employees, and the company will continue to work together for a better BC for you and your family.

Scott Swanson [00:07:20] Mining is BC’s second largest industry. It takes a lot of courage to go down a mine shaft and spend up to 10 hours a day working underground. But it takes a special kind of courage to go into that mine in an emergency situation.

Scott Swanson [00:07:37] Daybreak at the Sullivan Mine in Kimberley. The first shift prepares for another day in one of the largest hard rock mines in British Columbia, a day mining lead and zinc. I was surprised to discover they don’t descend by elevator as in all those old movies, but rather they drive into the mine and the railroad no longer runs along the tunnel floors. In fact, bulldozers, trucks, and earth movers are the modern modes of ore transport. But the advent of technology has not eliminated the danger. To Cominco and the United Mine Workers Union, safety in the workplace is not only a priority, but a way of life. To ensure they are prepared for any emergency, they have trained the best mine rescue team in BC. Before his retirement, Bob MacSporran was a member of this elite team for 20 years.

Bob MacSporran [00:08:25]  If you live in a mine you should know how to look after yourself or somebody else if a need comes up and it’s good fellowship in the competitions. I think all the people even today, I think the main object is to be prepared if you can, you hope that nothing ever does happen but we’ve had two incidents where our skills were used.

Scott Swanson [00:08:48] Being part of one of the four mine rescue teams at Sullivan is voluntary and in addition to their regular mine responsibilities. If a disaster should occur, all mine rescue personnel above ground are alerted and report here.

Dale Craig [00:09:01] This machine is used as BG174. It’s used for rescue purposes. It’s good for four hours underground. It is a closed-circuit breathing apparatus. It will take the CO2 out of the air that they’re breathing in and they’ll breathe in clean oxygen.

Speaker 11 [00:09:17] Check relief valve. Should be able to suck and not blow.

Clay Perry [00:09:25] Do your breathing hose check.

Dale Craig [00:09:27] Now right now they’re checking for cracks in the breathing hoses. At no time can they have a leak of any sort in any part of their equipment. One okay. Two okay. Three okay. Four okay. Five okay. Replace back cover. One step backward and done. Attach me, please.

Scott Swanson [00:09:58] Before heading to a disaster, the team captain must know each man is ready and committed to the rescue. Because if one member of the team goes down, the entire team is pulled and another team is sent in.

Dale Craig [00:10:12] He’ll test each individual for his equipment. He’ll check out each individual man. Then the vice captain on the end will come back and check out the captain.

Scott Swanson [00:10:25] Every operation of the mine rescue team was performed at a measured pace to ensure that nothing was overlooked and that any potential problems with equipment or personnel were discovered above ground.

Dale Craig [00:10:39] We basically have four basic priorities which mine rescue goes by, and the first priority is always the safety of the mine rescue team and personnel. The second priority we go by is endeavor to rescue and save all trapped men. The third priority we have is extinguishing all fires in the mine and saving the mine properties as best possible. And the last priority we have is actual rehabilitation of the mines. Its ventilation, make sure the mine itself is secure, so the ongoing people that come underground will have no danger.

Speaker 13 [00:11:13] Oh, OK, great.

Dale Craig [00:11:16] What we actually try to do is simulate as difficult a fire as we can possibly get. So we have different pans designed in different shapes to make it as difficult as possible to put out those fires. We also have set up a drip situation where we have a burning drum on top with oil burning down a chute into a fire pan and light that whole unit on fire. And the rescue personnel have to put that fire out in the right priority, starting from the bottom, working to the top, extinguishing the fire.

Scott Swanson [00:11:49] While the five-member underground team prepares, the sixth member of the team is at the disaster site gathering all known information to enable him to coordinate the rescue from above ground. In this training exercise, the mine shafts are recreated above ground to enable the instructors to properly assess the team’s actions and reactions.

Speaker 13 [00:12:13] Okay team, this is what we’ve got. We’ve got two men missing in the mine, somewhere in this area we’re not sure, we have a small fire in the back of the shop.

Dale Craig [00:12:23] What we do is try to simulate as close as possible to an actual disaster underground. Whereas outside we have a better chance of seeing the team go through their proper priorities. We can check them closer and there’s not a much pressure situation. We can actually simulate smoke out here. We send them into smoke. We see how the team reacts inside smoke and we can evaluate the whole team as a whole. And the team itself gets a feel for what it’s like going into smoke rather than a pressure situation in a real disaster and walking inside a fir e.

Scott Swanson [00:12:58] Bicycle horns are used for team communication in the darkness, smoke, and poisonous atmosphere that would exist in an underground fire.

Dale Craig [00:13:06] We could be called to respond to a disaster in Nakusp on the Kootenay Lake side. We could call to respond a disaster at Coeur d’Alene and the districts there. Our teams in past have responded to those areas. We have sent teams around the province wherever required. We’re ready to go. The company has responded to the government stating that we are at readiness to assist them in whatever situation may arise.

Scott Swanson [00:13:34] The continued training and practice drills of the mine rescue team is another example of the deep commitment of Cominco and the United Mine Workers Union to ensure the safety of every miner in the workplace.

Scott Swanson [00:13:47] Well, as you can see, Judy did not come down here with me. So while I’m traversing the 2,400 feet up to the surface, here’s Clay Perry. Okay, Bob, I’m ready. Bob? Oh, come on, Bob! Where are ya? Judy!

Judy Pal [00:14:14] And now, from the wrinkled, unabridged pages of his historical logbooks, BC At Work’s resident storyteller, Clay Perry.

Clay Perry [00:14:28] The Wobblies, members of the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World, or as some employers preferred to have it, the I Won’t Works, almost mythic figures who crossed our path in the period 1907 to 1926 or so. They left little in the way of records, no charters, no minute books, there were no hotly contested leadership contests. Joe Hill, wobbly troubadour, and martyr did visit a railway construction camp in the Fraser Canyon and wrote there the song, Where the Fraser River Flows, the song still much beloved by folk music groups. But what they chiefly left as testimony to their passing wherever they went was a establishment that was furious, vengeful, often hysterical. And in curious contrast to that reaction, there is the recollection of Earle Birnie, one of Canada’s major poets, who worked in a wobbly camp in Alberta at that period. His recollection of IWW activists, is of gentle men. And that description surely fits one document that does come down to us, kind of a diary written by a Swedish immigrant in which he writes of construction camps, logging camps of bedbugs and men, in which he fondly recalls walking from a camp east of Hope to Vancouver, a distance of over a hundred miles, to get his wobbly card. And that’s Perry’s Log Book.

Speaker 14 [00:16:19] I would like to be a lawyer. Why? Because I’m in law school and I’ll be futile trying to make a living with a law degree if I don’t become a lawyer!

Speakers [00:16:28] We’re the Sullivan Number One Mine Rescue Team! We’ve got work to do! We’ll be right back!

Speaker 11 [00:17:37] If you’re shopping for a home, this is not the place to start. A Royal Bank Report on prearranged mortgages. It’s hard to know what you can buy until you know how much you can borrow. That’s where the Royal’s prearranged mortgage can help. You’ll know exactly how much you can borrow and what your monthly payments will be. You’ll now what price range to look at. And the Royal will guarantee the interest rate for 60 days. It’s like having the cash before you start house hunting. Royal Bank prearranged mortgages.

Scott Swanson [00:18:09] Many passengers on BC Ferries have seen and wondered about the Westshore Terminals on Roberts Bank, the destination point for what will be approximately 20 million metric tons of coal this year, an average of six coal trains carrying 10,000 tons each arrive daily.

Pat Killeen [00:18:28] The terminal is a unique little operation. I say little, it’s big in terms of coal. We’re ranked about third in the world behind Richards Bay in South Africa, which does about 40 million tons per year. And a couple of terminals in Australia, which are very comparable, in the 15 to 20 million tons per year. We are a service company. All we really do is dump trains, stockpile coal, and load coal-ported vessels. That’s… That’s all we do, we don’t do anything else. All the coal comes in by trains. As we receive it, the coal is segregated. Each stockpile you see, all 20 of them, are separate grades, brands. There are eight different mines that ship through Westshore. They’re allocated space. We’re projecting to be in the high 18s, maybe 19 million tons, so it’s going in the right direction for us right now. As a matter of fact, we presently hold the world record for the largest coal cargo of 239,000 and a few tons, I’m not sure of the exact number. It was loaded on the Hyundai Giant about a year ago. The total value of the coal that passes through Westshore is in excess of a billion dollars per year at the present rate. And that equates into a significant percentage of the total value of all the goods that are shipped through the Port of Vancouver. West Shore is considered part of the Port of Vancouver, the last time I heard the numbers thrown around it was that the coal represents 30% of the total value of all the goods that pass through the Port of Vancouver. We employ a total of 170 people, that’s from the president covering all employees. The last number that I saw was 10,000 jobs would be directly affected in the event that this operation was terminated, closed right down, for whatever reason. The unique part of Westshore Terminals is, I believe, the fact that it is a continuous operation. When we start loading a vessel, the employees who are on the ship loaders, who are the stack reclaimers, who are dumping trains, they stay on the equipment until they’re relieved, whether it be coffee breaks, lunch breaks, or the end of their shift. The intention is that machinery stays running. Machinery is extremely expensive. Uh… And uh… It’s critical that when the ships are alongsides, the machinery stays running, loads the ship at the fastest possible rate, which doesn’t do anything for the immediate revenue for Westshore Terminals, but it does for the suppliers.

Scott Swanson [00:21:13] Westshore can custom blend coal to meet specific customer requirements.

Pat Killeen [00:21:18] The coal is being blended from consideration of size characteristics. Some coal is very fine, some coal is very coarse, and they don’t stand alone too well. You put the two together, the mix comes out in a reasonable manner that gets the burn that the user wishes. So generally that’s what’s motivating the need for blends is to aid coals that wouldn’t necessarily stand alone on their own merits.

Scott Swanson [00:21:47] Members of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union Local 502, enjoy a good relationship with Westshore Terminals.

Pat Killeen [00:21:54] I believe it’s probably one of the finest labour agreements that exists, certainly in Western Canada. I think the employees, if you were to talk to them you’d probably get the same response. I think both parties are quite proud of it and the results is what really counts.

Scott Swanson [00:22:12] A major concern with such a large and busy facility has been its environmental impact.

Pat Killeen [00:22:17] All the initial fears of what would take place when this monster was produced out here has in fact produced an ecology that is incredibly advantageous to the fingerling salmon and a whole variety of other types of sealife in this area. Commercial crabbing goes on within 100 feet of our facilities. Sports fishermen are catching salmon right along our dock face. Even the killer whales, for some reason, in the spring when they start showing up, which is just about the same day each year, they swim right by our dock within 100 feet. For some reason and they do it every year. Same spot. They turn the corner and they head into the channel here and I don’t know what’s in there, but it must be some fish or something.

Speakers [00:23:15] I’d like to be actually president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. How’s that for an ambition in the future, right?

Charlie Farquharson [00:23:23] The fact that your IRC’s cat, Bind, are fine, has put them counselors into fine-bind like there was trust up with Bind or Twine number nine. Hmm, hmm.

Scott Swanson [00:23:32] Don’t go away, Charlie’s next with Barnyard Analysis.

Speaker 17 [00:23:38] You’re still in bed when the first trucks start rollin’. Before this day is through, each man will lift 50,000 pounds of garbage and walk miles of back alley. This job is tough and is dirty. It takes a special kind of man to work this hard for you and your community, a garbage man. It’s his neighborhood, too. They can’t rush it or cut corners because a safe, clean city is something to be proud of. And you can’t put a price tag on that. CUPE garbagemen, a winning team that takes pride in a job well done.

Speaker 18 [00:24:07] On February 15th, 1986, 19 cars derailed in Fort Langley carrying toxic chemicals. For the people who live nearby, the most important person in the world was Rick Hawes, a member of the BCGEU. Rick Hawse was first on the scene to protect people by checking the water, soil, and air for contamination. It could have been a disaster. Instead, it was just another hard day’s work for Rick Hawse.

Narrator [00:24:33] The BCGEU. Partners in your community.

Charlie Farquharson [00:24:50] I seen this fellow leaning in front of the fence watching some other people work. So I asked him what he’d done for a living. He said, kind of proud, IRC. I told him I wasn’t interested in his religion, but he told me your IRC had nothing to do with being holy. It being your Industrial Relations Council. That’s supposed to be your mediumators in any dispukes between your worker and his bosses when they’re sitting around negotiating with each other. It was only started up a year ago and it’s supposed to act like a kind of neutered ominous buts and neutered seems to be your operative word because it’s been pretty well boycocked by your BC Federation and Labor and even them employers seem to be ignoring it with their undivided attention especially since their back-to-work orders was thrown out of court by them old men in the red dresses up to Ottawa, your Supremes. The fact that your IRCs can’t bind or fine has put them counselors in a fine-bind like they was trussed up with bindertwine number nine. Hmm, hmm. I think the trouble with your IRC is that they’re a little disgusting group that gets together and all they can do is talk. Most committees has this problem. They can’t do nothing by themselves except maybe decide unanimously that nothing can be done. Committees don’t seem to work too well unless everybody except one fella is absent. If the children of Israel had been under a committee, they’d have never gotten across your Red Sea. Your IRC puts me in mind that some of them spacey rackets down at Cape Carnivoral lately. They didn’t seem to work, and they can’t be fired. In fact, it’s a bit of a dog.

Scott Swanson [00:26:24] Well, that’s it for this week.

Judy Pal [00:26:26] You know, Scott, something really neat about this program is not only are we traveling across the province, but tonight, I was way above it and you were 2,400 feet below it.

Scott Swanson [00:26:34] I know and you got to give the mine rescue team a lot of credit.Yeah. I mean when they showed us that demonstration above the ground

Judy Pal [00:26:39] Oh, they made it look so easy, didn’t they?

Scott Swanson [00:26:40] I know, and you get down there, I mean, it’s deep.

Scott Swanson [00:26:43] Well, wasn’t it kind of scary when it was kind of dark?

[00:26:46] Scary? No! Of course not.

Judy Pal [00:26:50] Next week we’ll be coming to you from Vancouver Island. No, Scott, really, weren’t you just a little bit frightened?

Scott Swanson [00:26:56] Maybe a little. At the end when they left me alone.

Judy Pal [00:27:02] Join us next week. Good night. Scott, yeah, it’s kind of scary when you’re alone, right?

Scott Swanson [00:27:06] Yeah, I just, it was really strange, I mean all of a sudden there was just nobody there.

Judy Pal [00:27:20] Why would they leave?

Narrator [00:27:22] If you have a good story about a BC union, worker, or company, write to us at BC At Work, Suite 411-1200 West Pender, Vancouver. The producers of BC At Work would like to thank the following companies for supplying goods and services. Our show hosts travel BC in the luxury of a 28-foot motorhome provided by Okanagan manufacturers. The crew vehicle for the show is a 1988 Chevy S-10 Blazer, complements of Westminster Auto Leasing. Our fuel expenses throughout BC Have been provided by the Petro Canada dealers and agents. Our energy is Canada. While on the road, the cast and crew of BC At Work stay at Coast Hotels, the choice of the frequent traveler. Everyone on the show can stay in touch no matter where we are in the province thanks to Auto-Tel and cellular equipment complements of Cellular Express and BC cellular. Aerial footage made available through the services of Vancouver Helicopters. This week’s show has been made possible in part by contributions from Labour Canada, CUPE BC, and CU&C Health Services Society.