The largest employer in Thompson announces a plan to cut over 600 jobs. The company says most of the job losses will be achieved through attrition. The United Steelworkers Local 6166 president says that "the whole future of Thompson is in question," while Thompson's MLA, whose cabinet responsibilities include transportation, tries to ensure a co-ordinated response, and a newly-elected government is left to sort through the mess.
Sound familiar?
Some might say the Nov. 17 announcement by Vale is a case of deja vu all over again - in many ways similar to the buzz surrounding the city back in 1977. (For the record, the USW president in that case was Dick Martin, the MLA was Progressive Conservative Ken MacMaster, and the election was a provincial one held nine days before the announcement - though municipally, Don MacLean would be elected to his first term as mayor a few days later.)
On Oct. 20, 1977, the company then known as Inco announced that they would be cutting 3,450 jobs across Canada by mid-1978, with most of those cuts coming in Sudbury, but also 650 in Thompson - 550 hourly workers and 100 staff - where the hope was that firings would be minimal and most jobs would be lost through attrition. Operations at Birchtree Mine were to be suspended early in 1978.
The reaction would seem familiar to anybody paying attention to the current situation - the same script as the one being used today, only with different actors. Cecil Smith, at the time representing Churchill riding federally for the Progressive Conservatives as MP, blamed the announcement on the federal Liberals' tax policies for resource companies. "When industries paid taxes only on provincially-owned resources, they prospered," said Smith. "With the addition of federally-imposed operational taxes, industry found it impossible to generate a reasonable return."
"People are going to figure that there is no future here and they are going to be looking for jobs," said Martin, adding - in a sentiment familiar to anybody following the current mood of Thompson - that he expected most of those people to be leaving the city entirely in search of other work.
Just as is the case in 2010, 1977's reaction included immediate attempts to get the federal government on board - Tom Farrell, in his last days as mayor, travelled to Ottawa along with a delegation that also included premier-elect Progressive Conservative Sterling Lyon, who died last month. Farrell had already talked to other community stakeholder groups such as the USW, the Thompson Chamber of Commerce, and Inco itself by this point. The Ottawa meeting was called by Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's government to deal only with the Sudbury issue, but at the province's request, officials representing Thompson and Manitoba were brought in as well.
After the initial shock wore off, Thompsonites pulled back their "doom and gloom" opinion of the cutbacks and began to say that although the city might struggle to get through the changes in its workforce, it would be able to survive no matter what, with business owners committing to remain in town.
Bud Cullen, federal minister of employment, channeled his inner Tony Clement in appearing unconcerned about the cuts, saying that he didn't believe the layoff decision could be reversed. Early overtures from the USW to Inco seemed to back up Cullen's opinion, as the company rejected outright a USW proposal which would eliminate overtime.
Officials also complained about not being consulted or informed properly about Inco's decision before it was announced. And guess what? Inco was a Canadian company, not Brazilian.
In Sudbury, the local USW leader said he only learned of the layoffs when he heard about them on the radio, while then-mayor Jim Gordon received a phone call from Inco half an hour before the announcement.
The Thompson Chamber of Commerce quickly took on a role as spokesperson for the city's increasingly diverse economy. After a news piece on CKY television (now CTV Winnipeg) rankled Chamber members, the organization responded by writing a letter to the TV station. "Your reporter's comments and the film on Thompson were blatantly one-sided and not representative of the fine community this is," read the letter in part. "[The report] gave the impression that the feeling in Thompson after the announcement of Inco's cutbacks was one of despair and resignation. This is far from the general feeling in our city."
A community forum held at the rec centre brought together many of these officials - including Inco division president Wint Newman - to discuss the issue. The outcome of the forum was a decision that Thompson's governmental representatives would exert pressure on Inco to reverse their decision. The decision was not completely reversed, and there were still hundreds of job losses - although further cuts were staved off by the implementation of the summer shutdown period.
By 1981, the events of 1977 were completely out of mind as the USW voted 70 per cent in favour of a strike effective Sept. 16. Financial considerations were cited as the main reason for the breakdown in contract negotiations between the two sides. A total of 1,900 employees manned the picket lines, blocking the main entrance to the T-1 mine until an injunction issue was ordered. MacLean said that a prolonged strike could jeopardize the future of Thompson, which had only recently stabilized from the 1977 job losses.
As the strike dragged into its second month - and just before Steve Ashton was first elected as Thompson MLA - Inco announced the development of the Thompson Open Pit, between the T-1 and T-3 mines, to be completed by 1984. The company said this was necessary to keep levels of ore being fed into the refinery at a viable level.
"I feel Thompson needs secondary industries more than any other community at this point in time," said Ashton in a campaign interview, noting that expansion of post-secondary education was also a priority of his.
Bill Clement, Inco President of Manitoba Operations, spoke to the Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 30, outlining what he saw as a prosperous future for Inco in Thompson post-strike. When asked about the possibility of another company buying Inco and feeling less paternalistic to Thompson, Clement's response was brief - "I hope not!"
The strike was settled on Dec. 15, nearly three months to the day after it began.
The one key difference between 2010 and 1977 - and indeed between 2010 and any other occasion when Thompson's mining future was in doubt - is that in all other cases, the culprit for the cutbacks was low worldwide demand for and the falling price of nickel.
In January 1998, for example, Inco superintendent of public affairs Dan McSweeney said that 45 staff positions in Thompson were being eliminated "due to extremely difficult times being experienced in the nickel industry." Further layoffs were not ruled out - and indeed, one month later, Inco announced plans to cut their Manitoba workforce by 175 people - or 10 per cent - by the end of 1998. Nickel prices - which fell as low as $1.69 - were singled out as the main reason for Inco's difficulties.
The USW, led by Bob Desjarlais, sprang into action and announced that they would attend the Inco shareholders meeting in Toronto that April. Desjarlais said that the union would attempt to keep younger workers employed by seeing early retirement packages offered to more senior employees.
That same month, Mel Wyshynski, president of Inco Manitoba, told the Chamber of Commerce that it was time for Thompson to begin serious planning for a post-mining future. "We really have to reduce our workforce by more than 10 percent, and depending on the amount we can produce over the coming years, the workforce will be further adjusted to meet the needs of the company, but only those needs," he said.
Just before the 1998 summer shutdown, 64 employees were terminated. In late August, Inco announced another 40 to 45 hourly positions would be downsized by November, though that number was later dropped to 13 through normal attrition.
Late in 1998, as Thompson's latest expiry date crept closer - Inco now suggested that mining operations could start to phase down as early as 2003 - the idea of deepening the Birchtree Mine to lengthen the lifespan of Inco's operations in Thompson began to gain serious traction.
Desjarlais said that if the project did not go ahead, there wouldn't be any Inco operations in Thompson past 2004. Saddled with a $70-million price tag, the deepening would see 2,000 feet added to the existing 2,700-foot mine. By this point, 220 jobs had already been lost, with 32 more slated for February 1999 and another 43 lined up for August.
Little time elapsed between this and the next round of labour negotiations, with the contract set to expire in September. Inco initially tabled a concession package with Desjarlais called "of the magnitude which is unfathomable." Negotiations continued through the summer, but ultimately an agreement was not reached and the employees were locked out. As the rhetoric heated up, McSweeney said that the purpose of Inco's offer was to ensure that Thompson operations continued past 2004, implying that a lasting Inco presence in Thompson might otherwise not be in the cards. An agreement was finally reached in early December.
Two months later, in February 2000, Inco officially announced the deepening of Birchtree, which was initially expected to extend the life of Inco's Thompson operations by at least 15 years.
In August 2001, the good news continued as McSweeney announced that about 130 new workers had been hired over the past year, bringing the total Inco Thompson workforce back up near 1,400.
The relationship between Thompson and its largest employer has had its ups and downs. Strikes and lockouts have at times been the norm, but stakeholders have always worked together to deflect or minimize any blows the community might receive - with the possible exception of 1977, which outlined a script from which recent events have yet to stray.
