JohnA: Strike not good for miners

JohnA (RE: Hecla: Miners strike in Silver Valley ):

Well, as DFO reported, the miners at the Lucky Friday voted to go on strike yesterday.

Like the strike I was in at Uncle Bunker exactly 40 years ago, this is a real shame and the workers won’t win long term. Over 200 people making an average of $84k a year will have a huge impact on them and the economy of the Silver Valley. One of my KHS classmates, an aging Boomer like me, is only a few months from Social Security, so the timing is particularly bad. He’s of the opinion that Hecla implemented the changes to their expired contract expressly to rid the company of the Union, one of the last of its kind in the region.

Unlike other strikes in the past it wasn’t entirely about money. Mostly it was about the company wanting to control the workplace and direct where their employees work, scrapping the seniority system in place for decades.

Don’t expect Hecla to remain closed for long. Cementation just completed the new silver shaft so there’s a ton of guys looking for work. Whereas I’d hate to see anyone cross the picket lines I expect that will happen at some point. Because the United Steelworkers are a Pittsburgh-based Union and they won’t give in at any point. We saw that when Bunker closed 35 years ago, when the bosses back east rejected a settlement approved by local miners.

We all know how that ended.