The strike goes on

MULLAN – The longest mining strike in Silver Valley history will continue on, as members of United Steelworkers Union 5114 chapter have voted down a tentative labor contract that was agreed upon by their leadership and Hecla Mining Company.

By a vote of 71 votes “for” to 80 votes “against,” the simple majority needed to pass the agreement was not reached following an official count held Monday afternoon at the USW Local 338 Union Hall in Spokane, Washington. The voting results also showed that 6 of the 157 total ballots cast were voided.

Union members had until Friday, Dec. 13 to mail-in their ballots for them to be counted.

Following the news of the agreement being turned down, Luke Russell, Hecla’s vice president of External Affairs expressed his disappointment with the results to the News-Press.

“We are very disappointed that the union members voted to not ratify the agreement that was reached by the negotiating committees,” he said. “That was after some 44 months of negotiation if you look at it from the time they’ve been on strike and 11 months that negotiations were occurring before they went on strike.”

With the agreement voted down, Hecla President and CEO Phillips S. Baker Jr. explained in a news release that company’s plan with the Lucky Friday Mine now is to move forward without the union workers.

“We will now accelerate hiring and utilizing contractors with the goal of reaching full production by year-end 2020. While we would have preferred ratification of the agreement reached by the two negotiating committees, after three years of negotiating we believe the best interests of the company and community is the Lucky Friday in full operation.”

A ramp-up to full production was mentioned by Baker Jr. during the company’s 2019 Third Quarter Financial Results conference call on Nov. 7, but it was explained under the assumption that the tentative agreement would have passed.

Baker said at the time that the year-long ramp-up period to full production would be needed to initiate capital projects that have been put on hold since the strike and to simply get the process of getting everyone back to work going.

As for future negotiations between the two sides, nothing is scheduled at this time, but Russell states that Hecla would be open to talking.

“Certainly, we would be willing, if they have ideas, to of course sit down with them.”

USW 5114 president Dave Roose and USW Sub-district 3 Director Steve Powers could not be reached for comment.

As of Dec. 17, the union miners at the Lucky Friday will have been on strike for 1010 days and counting.

Our previous story describing the tentative labor contract can be found by clicking here.