Hundreds Face Layoffs As Wolverine Mine Idled
Tumbler Ridge, B.C.- Nearly 700 jobs will disappear from the Chetwynd – Tumbler Ridge region as Walter Energy shuts down it’s Wolverine and Brazion coal mines.
“We certainly didn’t anticipate this, this morning” says Frank Everitt, the president of United Steelworkers local 1-424, which represents about 400 workers at the Wolverine mine. Everitt says the union was invited to a meeting with the company this morning, “Our guys anticipated there might have been some slowdown, maybe the loss of one shift, but nothing to this extent that’s for sure.”
“This has come as a total shock” says Everitt.
It’s all because of the drop in the price of coal.
For the workers at Wolverine, the cut is immediate “The day shift didn’t operate, they sent them home” says Everitt, “and the night shift has been told they’ll be paid for the shift, but it is immediate.”
In a release from the Alabama based Walter Energy which operates the mine, comes word on the fate of “Brazion (which includes the operations of Brule and Willow Creek and is located near the district municipality of Chetwynd) will continue to operate the Brule mine but expects to idle the mine by July 2014. The company will continue to operate its preparation plants at these mines to complete processing of coal that already has been mined and is in inventory.”
The shut down impacts approximately 415 employees at the Wolverine mine, approximately 280 employees at Brazion, and other administrative support staff. A limited number of employees will remain at each site to operate the preparation plants and, once coal processing is complete, to perform ongoing equipment maintenance and provide ongoing security for the sites during the idle period.
There is no indication of how long the “idle period” might be.
"These layoffs are particularly unfortunate because our employees have worked very hard to keep these mines competitive in the face of daunting market conditions," said Walter J. Scheller III, Chief Executive Officer. "Equally important, they've worked safely." Scheller noted that the Brule mine completed 2013 without a reportable safety incident.
The company expects the severance packages to cost about $7 million in the second quarter of 2014 in connection with the idling of the mines.
Comments
Boom times ending? Hopefully not.
blog/view/31658/1/selling+the+positives+of+resource+development?id=143&st=30
Myth #6: BC’s resources follow a boom bust cycle . . .
I hope all the impacted workers can find jobs elsewhere. That’s allot of job losses all at once.
Wonder if HD Mining in Tumbler will have to send the 200 Chinese workers back and hire some of these unemployed Canadian miners…..
Weren’t they all told a month ago that they were shutting down? I know of two guys who moved on to Mackenzie to work the mine there when they were given the first layoff notice which was rescinded. They have been working for three weeks now at the new mine and will probably breath a sigh of relief when they hear this news
It’s all about global pricing for the commodity. Mining isn’t as smart as oil. Oil prices go down, the producers put their heads together and shut one off for a little while in order to balance off the supply/demand forces within the commodity. Prices go up, they all go back to selling at the higher price (OPEC).
Mining sees a drop in the pricing and it seems to be a race to the bottom.
This is a major deal for everyone from Williams Lake north. Those mines employed a lot of people and bough a lot of stuff from all over the region.
This 700 number is only mine staff, this does not include the numerous truck drivers, etc who also support the industry. This is likely to affect upwards of 1000 people, if not more, when you calculate the trickle down effect.
peegee has it right. This will have an impact on the Port of Prince Rupert, and the Railway that hauls the coal just to name a few.
Keep your eye on the ball, as there will be more to come.
Good thing is Copper and Gold mines still doing great, but back to my Question will the Government step in and make HD hire some of these Canadian Miners or allow them to keep their 200 Chinese workers?
Jobs for B.C. It’s all about families first.
New generating plants overseas are using LNG, old coal burning ones are being converted to LNG as in Asia (China, India, Korea…) the ambient air has become virtually toxic to breathe.
LNG helps cut down on industrial GGH emissions. Burning coal releases a lot of mercury into the environment. Mercury even in the most minute amounts is a known neurotoxicant, at least now we know that it is.
Not good in that area.
Only thing going for these guys up there is the gas industry. hopefully they don’t slow down.
the only thing that is good is that the Coal is not going to run away. The value in it will return when China gets rolling again, and the demand for steel goes up.
I wouldn’t be saying Copper and Gold mines are doing great. Price of gold fell 35% last year, and the cost of recovering is close to a $1000 a ounce. The Copper prices are around $3.00 which is off by about 12% from the beginning of the year. Mt Milligan has just started up and is producing some revenues, but it really still has a bit of a hill to climb before it is great. sure they are plowing the money into the NW corridor to get the power lines in there and to give mines a opportunity to open up sites. But if the price of Gold slips to below $1100 US, I think mines will reconsider.
This is a great part of the province to be at when they want our resources.
What the provincial and Federal Government has to look at is, Jobs for Canadaians from Canadian Resources.
Put a stop to Raw log exports, take the round parts off of it, make it square and sell it.
Put a stop to sending raw bitumen to foreign market, refine it than sell the value added product.
All this copper from all the mines in BC, gets shipped out in Concentrate. I would support the BC Government willing to build a processing plant and create a new industry in BC.
Why can’t we do this, is it because we have been told for so many years there is nothing we can do about it. This is how a great nation get built, by saying why not.
not just the ‘locals’ affected–contractors working on site will be out of work too! trickle down effect can be ugly.
Horrible news
Over-produce till market saturation ,massive layoffs , 2 years later market needs coal , companies reopen mines with all new hires at 25-30 % less wages.
Companies screw everyone for Billions.
Ya? well IPG says we need 1,000,000 trained workers by 2020, so there.
They keep talking about that high road.
Im not seeing it just yet. I hope their right.
I think a lot of this boom that the talking heads are spewing about is a pipe dream. And shortage of workers is BS. There is a shortage of workers in BC. These are workers who are not willing to do the job for peanuts. These foreign workers take very little effort to make their crappy lives better. 8 in a room here is better then 12 in a room at home. 1/2 of our wage scale is royalty rich for some of these people who get hired in BC to do work. Again, the foreign mine workers are one thing. Look at how many get your coffee at the drive through every morning at Canada’s favorite coffee shop. The location in Chetwynd is 2 stories high so they have living quarters on the second floor for the foreign workers.
I agree with He Spoke. If we can’t extract, refine and add value to the natural resource here in Canada, leave it in the ground (tree, oil or mineral) until it becomes economic to do so. Anything else is stealing from the next generation(s).
“The Ministry of Energy and Mines issued permits last summer to Canadian Kailuan Dehua Mines (CKD), a Chinese-backed mining company, for their Gething project. The permits allowed for construction for major components of a coal mine that if allowed could run for 30 years.” This is near Chetwynd, and is a billion dollar project..if this is a go, what is wrong with Wolverine?? Other mines, Peace River Coal, for example, had Dunne Za busy building huge tailing ponds last summer.
Well….foreign ownership of BC’s resources makes BC workers vulnerable. Perhaps the employees should buy these mines and try the co-op model which can be very successful.
“Perhaps the employees should buy these mines and try the co-op model which can be very successful.”
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Until the employees have to share the losses. Which they currently think they’re doing when there’s a layoff, or there’s a reduction in wages or benefits. But those are losses of FUTURE ‘personal’ earnings. Not digging further into your pocket to make up for PAST ‘business’ ones as well.
My brother in law just had one of his trucks go up there to haul coal a few weeks ago. For him it sounded like it was going to be a long term thing that paid more than hauling logs. Lucky for him he still has a foot in the the log hauling… had this happened later in the year it could have been a disaster for his business. Others obviously had both feet in and lots will be out big with little to no warning.
Just waiting to see how all you mouth pieces are going to blame the NDP for this….
Prov1 Who do you blame?
Prov 1 we know damn well whos to blame with the lack of jobs in BC , we need to thank Alberta for what few we have left .
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