Ring of Fire workers walk off job, protest pay and camp conditions

Protesting poor wages, deteriorating work conditions and inadequate health and safety infrastructure, more than two dozen Cliffs Natural Resources workers have walked off the job in the Ring of Fire.

Jesse Nadon, a self-described jack-of-all-trades, on Monday, joined by three other colleagues from the former Freewest camp, said the walk-out is the one of the only ways they know how to capture the attention of the Cleveland-based company’s management.
Another is camp a blockade, an action the four said could be forthcoming

Nadon said camp workers, who may not have the big-ticket skill set of the miners and engineers employed by Cliffs, waited for more than a year for a salary package to be delivered.

When it arrived, it was less than acceptable, he said, given the profits the company stands to make on resources being taken from traditional First Nation’s territory.

“Right now we work as independent contractors and we are responsible for our own taxes, with no benefits or unemployment insurance,” Nadon said, reading a prepared statement for media at Matawa’s Thunder Bay headquarters.

“On Thursday, June 16, the accountant and the human resources person (from Cliffs) made a presentation to us at camp and offered us a packaged that would effectively make all First Nations staff helpers on the organizational chart and after taxes, all camp workers would make only $140 a day in take-home pay.”

Adding insult to injury, Nadon said, the company, which has yet to respond to numerous interview requests other than to say a statement is forthcoming, Cliffs allegedly told the camp staff they would be considered seasonal workers who could be proud to call the company an employer and they would also then qualify for unemployment insurance.

“We could earn this at McDonald’s and not have to be away from our families in isolation working under hazardous conditions for four weeks at a time,” Nadon said.

Camp employee Ralph Baxter said while they’re not expecting luxurious surroundings, they want fair wages.

“We understand that the conditions in mining camps will be basic, but there is a common industry expectation that workers are compensated and paid accordingly based on the employment conditions. This is not the case here. Cliffs offers no isolation pay, inadequate travel pay, no employment benefits and offers poor bonus incentives. We are without question the poorest paid workers in the mining industry.”

Nadon pointed to bonuses allegedly paid out by Cliffs for moving 200 tonnes of chromite by hand in March. Camp workers got $1,000 bonues for doing it twice as fast as the deadline set by the company, while permanent employees in the Thunder Bay office allegedly got up to $50,000 each.

The figure is unsubstantiated.

“We are all standing together to protest these unfair wages and work conditions, both First Nation and Non-Native workers,” Nadon said.

Workers also worried, Baxter added, there is no safe way for helicopters to land at the camp in the evening in case of accident or illness.

“We are literally putting our lives in their hands every time we board a plane to go to work and they will not respond to any requests for support or offer us better pay. The camp is being run like a dictatorship– we are not allowed to voice our opinion or provide input to make improvements but we will not put up with this treatment,” says worker Jesse Nadon.

The action came in the aftermath of the resignation last week of the camp manager.

Cliffs’ workers are asking all communities in Northwestern Ontario to support their protest and hold the company acccuntable.

“We are taking a united stand today to ensure that this is not the precedent set for future generations of workers,” says Kevin Loder.

But Bill Boor, senior vice-president of Global Ferroalloys, said what the workers are saying is based on misinformation and they would be contacting each member of the camp get a better understanding of what happened over the weekend.

"There are a lot of inaccuracies in the information that’s been communicated and the story is not being fully told in the appropriate light," Boor said.

"A lot of what has been reported is just false. We were having some discussions with camp management and the workers. Some of these discussions we initiated in the past weeks with the people at the camp were based on Ciffs trying to take the safety situation, which we don’t believe is below expectations, to a higher level.

“No unsafe conditions are going to be tolerated by Cliffs. Safety is of the utmost importance to us."

Boor said they walked away from the discussions thinking there were no issues but if a worker did have a concern, they could speak with camp management.

Although, temporary management has taken over operations at the campsite, Boor said he hoped once the workers understand the situation they would return to work.

"There’s been discussions about of a blockade but that blockade was always in the context of thinking that Cliffs was going to ‘replace workers’," he said. "We’re not planning on replacing workers. We hope these workers come back after understanding the situation."

Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Michael Gravelle on Monday said his ministry is monitoring the situation and has informed the ministry of labour of the walkout, but said he’d prefer not to comment further.

The Ring of Fire project, located in the James Bay lowlands, is believed to be the largest chromite deposit ever found, worth up to $30 billion. Cliffs plans to develop a mine, a railway corridor and a ferrochrome processing plant, which could be built in Thunder Bay.