Workers' Memorial Day commemorates the June 20, 1984 deaths of four miners at Falconbridge Mine. It's always an emotional time for Brad Anderson.
A retiree with the former Falconbridge Ltd., Anderson said he'd just transferred from Falconbridge Mine to another mine site a few weeks before the tragedy.
A seismic event measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale struck the mine, resulting in a fall of ground that killed Sulo Korpela, Richard Chenier, Daniel Lavallee and Wayne St. Michel.
Anderson said he didn't know the men who died well, but as someone who had worked at the same mine, and knew many of their coworkers and would-be rescuers, it was a “horrifying” day.
“God rest their souls,” he said.
The service in honour of Workers' Memorial Day was held this year at Mine Mill's campground on Richard Lake, and included a long list of speakers, including union and company officials, local politicians and other community members.
Although specifically commemorating the 1984 Falconbridge mining disaster, the event also remembers other workers who have died at the company, which, as a result of several buyouts, now goes by the name Glencore.
Dave Stewart, vice-president of Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor, said since he was hired by the company in 1989, six of its miners have lost their lives on the job.
“These were all workers that I knew, and to this day I cannot forget the impact of their tragedies in our workplace,” he said.
The most recent of these deaths occurred Oct. 20, 2015, at Glencore's Nickel Rim South Mine. Richard Pigeau was killed after he was ejected from the machine he was operating and crushed by one of its rear tires.
“It's been 32 months since Rick Pigeau's fatality at Nickel Rim South, and it seems like yesterday,” Stewart said.
He also spoke about the May 6, 2014, deaths of Marc Methe and Norm Bisaillon at the now defunct company First Nickel's Lockerby Mine. The miners were killed in a fall of material.
First Nickel was fined $1.3 million in connection to their deaths earlier this year — the highest ever imposed under the Occupational Health and Safety Act in Ontario — but there's little hope it will ever be paid.
Laws need to be changed so that even if a company is bankrupt, former mine owners are still held accountable, Stewart said.
“To add insult to injury,” criminal charges were not laid against the company under the Westray Law because “the case had already exceeded the 18 month statute” of limitations, he said.
Although much progress has been made since the 1984 tragedy at Falconbridge Mine, seismic events are still the No. 1 risk to underground miners, Stewart said.
Many of the recommendations of the 2014 mining review focus on improvements in this area. “It is imperative that the Ministry of Labour continues to further the investigation into the various aspects of ground control risks,” he said.
Unifor national representative Richard Paquin, who was the master of ceremonies at the event, presented a number of statistics showing the impact of workplace deaths.
In Ontario in 2017, there were 30 workplace accident fatalities, one of which was mining-related.
In the past year, around the world there were 250 million workplace accidents, and 2.3 million workers died worldwide as a result of on-the-job accidents or industrial diseases.
Work actually kills more people than wars — 167,000 people die each year due to armed conflicts.
“Statistics really tell us the real story,” Paquin said. “One worker dies every 30 seconds. While some say we're doing better, because it used to be one every 15 seconds, it's still unacceptable.”
He urges people to recommit themselves to workplace safety. "The rules are there mainly because somebody, somewhere, died,” Paquin said. “Let's work by them.”
