Hecla, miners struggle to find middle ground

COEUR d’ALENE — A federal mediator will help negotiate a new employment contract between Lucky Friday Mine workers and Hecla after nearly eight weeks of bargaining failed to produce an agreement.

While the members of United Steelworkers, Local 5114, say a strike is not imminent, they are preparing to strike if the company doesn’t budge on eight concessions they want to see in a new employment contract.

“A strike benefits no one,” said Steve Powers, a staff representative with Local 5114. “I don't see a strike as being imminent at this point, but we are prepared and will continue to prepare.”

Powers said the union is pushing back on several concessions Hecla said it needs to modernize the Lucky Friday and ensure its sustainability in the next several decades.

Luke Russell, a spokesman for Hecla, said the federal mediator will be at Thursday's negotiations meeting, and Hecla hopes to find some common ground on some of those concessions.

Russell said the company wants the ability to change work schedules to accommodate new operating procedures it believes will improve safety and production in the mine.

“Lucky Friday is at a crossroad like it has been in the past,” Hecla said in a prepared information sheet provided to The Press. “Hecla needs to update and modernize mine operations to ensure safety and economic viability for the long-term.”

Russell explained Hecla needs to implement new technologies and a flexible work plan “that can respond to changing market and mine conditions.”

For example, he said, the company is testing battery-powered autonomous machinery that uses the same technology as self-driving cars in parts of the mine where temperatures are very hot and ground pressure is a concern.

Russell said Hecla is also interested in reducing its dependence on diesel-powered mining equipment to reduce the amount of exhaust in the mine.

“The mine’s future potential for the next three decades is to work deeper, which will require different mining methods and workforce skill sets,” the company said in its briefing materials. “We will need to be able to recruit, train and retain a workforce for the future.”

Russell said to modernize the mine, where there are about 250 union employees, the company also wants to be in more control of the shifts that are worked, and who does certain jobs underground. Currently the miners have set shift schedules and they use a seniority-based bidding system for jobs underground.

Powers said the company already has an option to adjust work schedules if a majority of the impacted workers agree to the schedule change.

“In some places people are working 11-hour shifts and some people in the mill are working 12-hour schedules,” he said, adding that in those cases, they have a consensus of the employees. “The new language gives them the ability to do anything they want. They could set up split shifts if they wanted to.”

Powers said the company also wants to eliminate overtime pay for any time worked over an employee’s regularly scheduled shift, and end a longevity bonus program for employees that hit certain milestones in the time they have worked for the company.

“Right now if you work for 10 years or 20 years, you are guaranteed a certain pay grade,” Powers said. “But now they want to eliminate that.”

While the union suspected the company would require them to pay something into the free healthcare plans they enjoy now, they are not happy with the plan they are being offered. Powers said there are provisions in the proposed healthcare plan that dramatically increase the deductible for a family member covered under their plan.

“Certainly the company needs to make some changes and we understand that,” Powers said. “But couple that with all of the other changes and it really starts to add up.”

He said he doesn’t see the bargaining unit voting for a contract with that healthcare plan in it.

Russell said the employees are not paying anything for health insurance now, and the company’s proposal also includes an 8 percent wage increase to help offset some of those costs.

The company also wants to revamp the way miners accrue vacation time. Powers said the current vacation policy allows employees to carry over vacation that they have not used during the calendar year.

“Some people have six months to a year of vacation time banked,” he said, explaining how Hecla wants those employees to use banked vacation time in 2017 with no new vacation accruing that year. Powers said a new vacation policy will kick in again in 2018.

One of the most concerning proposed changes, he said, involves bidding jobs underground. Currently miners with the highest seniority get preference in bidding for new mining jobs underground.

Whoever wins the bid can then select the team he wants to work with to accomplish the job.

Under the new proposal, Russell said the company would select where it wants to place workers, and assign its own teams.

According to information provided by Russell, the mine is nearing completion of its No. 4 Shaft, which will give the company access to more ore bodies but they are far deeper than they have gone before.

“Mining is increasingly difficult at lower depths due to changing rock mechanics, higher temperatures, challenging communications and tougher regulations, all demanding a highly trained workforce and the ability to adapt to varying conditions,” Russell’s information stated.

Russell said with the deeper shaft in particular, it will take miners a longer time to reach their work areas and that’s why the company wants the ability to adjust schedules. Russell said the operational changes are similar to what the company had to do back in the 1980s when it sank the first circular shaft in the Silver Valley, mechanized the mining methods it was using and introduced its “underhanded” mining method. He said all of those things improved safety and production.

“In 1986 there were about a dozen mines operating in the Silver Valley, but today only two remain in operation,” Russell’s information stated. “The innovative changes made back then allowed the Lucky Friday Mine to continue to grow and evolve.”

Russell said that is what Hecla is proposing now. It wants to modernize the methods it's using, especially in the deeper portions of the mine.

“The introduction of this new equipment will require not only highly trained operators, but specialized maintenance personnel too,” Russell’s information said. “We envision the Lucky Friday Mine of tomorrow will require both new skills and a different mix of skill sets.”

Russell said if the battery powered equipment is put to use, the company may need fewer diesel mechanics but more electricians.

Powers said he had not heard of the battery-powered equipment testing, but he planned to look into that project. He has heard the company is looking into continuous mining equipment as well.

Overall, Powers said, Hecla is spending a lot of money on mine acquisitions and sinking the No. 4 shaft at the Lucky Friday.

“They spent $225 million on that,” he said.

Russell countered that the Lucky Friday has not been very profitable the past few years.

“Hecla is not hurting yet they've proposed concessions for their Silver Valley employees working at their ‘Flagship’ mine in North Idaho,” Powers wrote in a recent update to union members. “Since the opening of negotiations in mid-April, Hecla has moved very little in modification of the concessions they are seeking.”

Still both sides expressed hope that mediation may get them to where they want to go.