“They gave us five years notice that they were going to close down the mine so that we had some lead time. A lot of those who were up there sold their properties and moved to Campbell River or further south and commuted to work. We set up a shift of four days on and four days off.  The phasing out process was done over five years. They were told that the mine would close at a certain date and they were told what they could expect when the mine shut down. They had bonuses for some of the guys who stayed on. 

They set up training facilities as well as job recruitment, and it was well done. About eighty percent of the people who used the training facility found jobs.

“The company told the employees that if they wanted to upgrade their educations and successfully complete their courses, they would foot the bill.

We tried to keep the labour force informed about what was going on because that keeps staff much happier; if you don’t keep people informed then productivity goes down. It was one of the better mines that I worked for.

“I went from high school into the technical trade for two years and did some other training.  From there I went into the armed forces for three years and traveled from Quebec and ping-ponged around until I left the force.  I was a radio operator while I was in the forces and it was a way to get out and see the world. When I left there, I was looking for work and I saw an advertisement in the paper that Inco was looking for workers in Thompson. 

“I had no experience when I went to Inco. I knew nothing about mining, other than, that you dug a hole in the ground. With Inco, most of their operations were underground and they had various levels three or four hundred feet apart and the deepest shaft was about four thousand feet down.  I worked for Inco in electrical and then I worked for Cominco in Trail, also in electrical construction for three or four years. Inco was nickel and Cominco was a lead and silver operation.  Normally, where you find lead you find silver.  I went back to Inco for a two or three year period from Trail, since there was not very much going on. 

“I had a friend who heard about the Island Copper project that was going on; he came out as a supervisor in the electrical department, called me and offered me a position on the floor in the electrical department. I thought about it and sloughed it off for a while, talked to people about it, they said it was way out there and there was no highway to it. You had to take the logging road in to get there.  Anyway, a year later he quit and I accepted his job. There was only a ferry between Telegraph Cove and Kelsey Bay that only ran once a day and it was slow. Barges pulling logs were passing the ferry, it was so slow! The road was put in around 1980. I had never come past the Trail area in British Columbia, but I always wanted to see the coast and the Island, that is part of the reason I took the job. 

“On my first day of work, I drove on this logging road and at two in the morning came through the center of town. At the end of Port Hardy there were a bunch of camps set up, but I did not know where to go because there were no signs. By then I was pretty beat so I went over to a building manager and kicked on the door. A voice from the inside asked, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I want a room,’ so he told me where to find one. I got up in the morning found my way over to the little kitchen, had a little breakfast and I asked how get to Island Copper. This guy said ‘You are not going out there, are you?  We are on a wobble; we all walked off the job.’ I asked if there was a picket line set up and he said no. That kind of shook me because wherever I had been before, when someone walked off the job there was a picket line. Then I phoned out to the mine site and got a hold of the electrical superintendent and he said there was no picket line so I might as well come up to sign up. That was my first experience with the Island Copper mine.

“The strike only lasted a couple of days. It was based on the fact that the people who lived in the camp paid five dollars a day to live there, but if they lived there more than thirty days they had to pay twenty dollars a day. The company compromised with them and said that if a person was there more than thirty days, he would pay ten dollars a day. This is the way they were, the company was good. 

“Management really tried to work out problems with the workers. The company put on a lot of management courses; one course talked about the different types of people and how they work together. People can be divided into four quadrants: the one who requires a lot of instruction and a lot of supervision; one who requires a lot of instruction and little supervision; one who requires little instruction and lot of supervision; and the one who requires little instruction and no supervision. If you take the guy who can do what you ask and put him with the guy who requires a lot of supervision and then start looking over his shoulder, he is going to get annoyed and not do the job. If you take the other guy, who needs instruction and supervision and tell him nothing then he will not do the job, managing is about evaluating people.

“I had a very experienced electrician, who used to do the servicing, working on a mill motor. He came to me one day and told me he wanted off the job because some guys had said that he was a mule. I told him he was the most experienced man I had working on the project and most likely had as much experience as all the other guys put together. I also told him that the motors were the heart and soul of the operation, if they did not go round we did not go round and he was okay with it.

“People like to have a little freedom to do things their own way.  I would listen to their ideas, and might use them, but I also reserved the right not to use the idea.  If a worker had a project in mind to improve productivity, cut costs, or improve safety, he could write it up and submit it to the personnel office. Submissions were evaluated once a month and a good idea could earn up to $2500 dollars for the employee. Everyone got a letter back regarding his suggestion and was told whether or not it would be used.

“Safety was pushed very strongly; it was a huge issue. Our mine rescue team won the BC Provincials, then went on to win the Canadian competition and then went to England to place 6th out of thirty-five teams.  I do not know if it was the best company, but it was a good company, and I would like to see more companies run this way.  It was a good blend of people up at the mine and the women who worked in the mine were well accepted.

“There was no pension per se.  In 1974, the company offered a pension and at that time, there were many short term employees who wanted the money up front. They were not going to be there up to the pensionable age so they wanted more dollars on their pay checks. The company did have a policy for the last ten years though; if you were going to take out an RRSP, they would match your contribution up to two thousand dollars a year. There was a big turnover in the first few years that the mine was open. In the end, there were people who stayed for the long term, who wished they had taken the pension option. There were staff people who received a pension; the choice to take more money was strictly for the hourly employees. The worst culprit at the end was the government because people ended up with severance pay which was taxed at about fifty-four percent. The severance was added on top of a worker’s annual income and this pushed a person into a higher tax bracket. The company brought in consultants to see if taking the severance over a couple of years would alleviate the taxes but it still was not worth it. The company had an upbeat atmosphere right up to the end, due to the fact there was enough notice given and the resources were available for an organized transition.

“Many people sold their properties five years in advance of the closure because they knew they were going to be out of a job. There are some things that make a difference in town. We are down to one grocery store but we still have a lot of restaurants. There was an A&W opened less than a year ago.”

In conclusion John still lives in Port Hardy and has fond memories of the people he worked with at Island Copper. He is very passionate about the management's commitment to their employees, and is convinced it is why they were so successful!