Strike day, plus one

United Steelworkers (USW) Union local 5114 chapter members who work at Hecla Mining Co.'s Lucky Friday Mine are now on strike.

The atmosphere in the The Outlaw Bar and Grill on the evening of March 12 was one of a normal busy night in a bar. Longnecks were being drained and bar banter was abounding as the staff did their best to keep up with a larger-than-normal Sunday night crowd.

To the casual visitor of the popular Mullan, Idaho, watering hole, nothing would have seemed out of the ordinary.

The reality of the situation was most of the night’s patrons were awaiting news that would not only change their lives dramatically, but send shock waves through North Idaho as well.

These patrons in particular were the miners of the Lucky Friday Mine, who had just wrapped up voting at the Mullan Pavilion on whether or not to go on strike.

Although most had a fairly good idea of what course of action was chosen, an air of uncertainty was still present.

Shortly after 7:30 p.m., USW chapter president Phil Epler walked through the door with the results of the vote.

The crowd fell silent as he made the announcement: “Two hundred thirty votes for a strike, two nos! Pretty much a unanimous decision!”

Union members and supporters erupted with cheers.

After 10 months and 16 days of negotiations and uncertainty, a decision many thought was inevitable or even should have been made earlier, was finally made.

Miners took to the picket line at 5:30 a.m., setting up at two different locations on Friday Avenue in Mullan to signal the beginning of the strike.

Hecla responded shortly after the miners took the line by releasing a statement (the full release can be read in this edition) where Hecla president and CEO Phillips Baker Jr. expressed the company’s disappointment with the miners' decision to walk out and reaffirmed that their “last, best and final offer provides competitive benefits but also provides the flexibility necessary to operate a mine successfully in a changing economic and regulatory environment.”

The strike vote, and the ensuing strike itself, was spurred by Hecla announcing March 10 that the company planned to implement portions of its proposed “last, best, and final” offer for a new labor contract.

This offer, presented to the Union on Jan. 11, was unanimously rejected — 222 votes against, zero for — by the miners on Feb. 19 over several areas of disagreement.

The 30 page document laid out the many articles and aspects of the new contract point-by-point.

Hecla highlighted 14 of the 26 articles in the offer that it believed full agreement had been reached with the Union, which on the surface, made it seem like progress was being made.

In reality though, many of the highlighted articles were procedural in nature (such as Union recognition and what an employee is defined as) and are not the main areas of disagreement that have kept the two sides from a new contract, such as hours of work and overtime, vacations and holidays, medical plans, recall rights, profit-sharing plans, and replacement of the current bid system for jobs in the mine.

Putting the final nail in the offer's coffin, union president Phil Epler said previously that the Union even has “some disagreement on the highlighted (articles).”

With the strike officially on and both sides vowing to be in it for the long-haul, a war of attrition has begun.

Simply put, the next move for either side is to simply wait the other out and hope they blink.

Epler said things are a bit chaotic right now, but the union’s plan of attack is to “take it day by day and hopefully return to the (negotiation) table with Hecla.”

It is safe to assume Epler speaks for all parties involved — whether it be Hecla, the union, or Silver Valley residents — when he says everybody is hoping for a quick conclusion to the situation.

“The longer this goes, the more it hurts everybody.”

The last time miners at the Lucky Friday went on strike was March 21 to May 23, 1981.