THE WINDING TRAILS FROM TRAIL LEAD BACK TO TRAIL

“Well, that leaves me no choice but to “Chopper” the boys, I need to get into the Plant, behind the picket line,” Roger Watson uttered this terse management statement to his counterpart at the bargaining table in the basement of the Union Hotel  as the picket lines continued to present a problem in maintenance basics for the strike bound Cominco Smelter at Trail. B.C., in 1990.

“There are some members within the United Steelworkers of America, who have a fetish with high-powered rifles and have become very proficient with them,” responded Doug Swanson from the union side. “I am deeply concerned, that no one will be able to control these people and something may happen that neither one of us would ever be able to forgive ourselves for the rest of our lives” Doug added. “Do we want to take that chance?”

“But Cominco must bring in Specialists into the Plant or there may not be a Plant to start again after the strike,” countered Roger. “We just have to get these people there now!”

“Okay, let’s see how we can get them through the line,” responded Doug, thoughtfully, while planning how he was going to convince his frustrated membership that this was a necessity and good bargaining practice.

So it did take place and respect grew for the two men representing two strong and opposite points of view, initiating a relationship which later was to become the significant factor that saved this fundamental source of employment in Greater Trail.

Roger Watson was born in Trail, B.C., the son of a Painting Contractor and Owner of a Paint Store. Roger graduated from the Trail school system and became a University of British Columbia graduate in Metallurgical Engineering. He was able to get summer jobs at the Trail Smelter and later became a Project Engineer in the Cominco Engineering pool. He rose through the ranks after conducting many feasibility studies for mining and potential plants at various sites throughout the world where Cominco Ltd owned properties.

One such feasibility study involved an exploratory process to refine lead rich ores using a patented Kivcet process designed by Russian Engineers. Roger sent samples of Cominco ore from the Red Dog Mine, an Alaskan Cominco property to a pilot plant in Kazakhstan so that they could be processed under the watchful eyes of the most knowledgeable Metallurgist in the world at that time, Vladmir Efremoe, President of Techicon in Genoa, Italy.

Roger was part of the Cominco Team that travelled to Kazakhstan during all the pilot plant testing and became intricately knowledgeable of the metallurgical, economic and operational challenges of the Kivcet process. Roger and his team were convinced that the Kivcet technology was the correct choice for the new Lead side Smelter.

Doug Swanson was born in Vermillion, AB where his father was employed as a Shoemaker because his Stone Masonry Trade was not in demand and a living had to be made. His education was grade 13 at Notre Dame in Nelson.  Then followed Normal School where he achieved a Teaching Certificate. He eventually received a Physical Education Degree from Notre Dame in Nelson and Notre Dame near Wilcox, Sask, where sports was part of its curriculum.

Doug spent summers working for his father’s Roofing Company, McIntyre-Swanson, in Trail and learned quickly, the work ethic, in order to survive.

Doug responded to an opportunity to gain employment at Consolidated Mining and Smelting Ltd (precursor to Comino Ltd) and chose Instrumentation Mechanics as his trade.  Doug and Lorne White explained how the CMS Ltd was the pioneer company in establishing a high level apprenticeship program that became the basis of the provincial apprenticeship program in later years. Doug and Lorne reminisced that Cominco Ltd treated them fairly and the company was a good employer that considered safety and top performance in their trades as its policy.

All employees were represented by a union which later became the Union of Steelworkers of America (USWA). Doug served his union in various capacities until he became President in 1987. Doug was President at the time period of this chronicle.

Doug recalls an interesting incident during his time (late seventies) in his active leadership in the union when a meeting was called at back of a pickup truck at the plant, in response to employees concerns over safety. A staff member from Personnel stood beside Doug on the pickup truck. Personnel was responding to an eleven (11) point list of safety concerns at the plant.  At least two (2) employees had lost their lives and some were physically hurt.

“The situation is not as bad as it appears”, the representative from Personnel started, “Cominco has a good safety record”

One of the employees raised his gnarled hand in the air and waved it at the speaker, “Here is the evidence!” All eleven (11) points were acted upon. Doug and Lorne recall that this was part of a sequence of events that established the ability of the union to have meaningful meetings with management. Safety became paramount in Cominco policy.

Despite the recommendations of Cominco Engineering and Roger Watson… Senior Management, with authority over Trail Management, became attracted to a QSL metallurgical process which was developed and patented by German Engineering. This Technology was offered with a substantial financial investment in Cominco Ltd. The Writer is not fully aware of all the reasons for this action and, therefore; this is not part of this chronicle except that the QSL process became the metallurgical process that was selected for the Lead side Smelter renovations of the dated original Lead Smelter at Trail, B.C., It became part of the final Engineering designs and construction at the Trail Plant during the latter part of the 1980s. This senior management selection over turned the local Engineering recommendation that favored the Kivcet Technology.

The writer’s information is provided here only to illustrate a likely series of events that gave rise to the eventual crisis in 1991 through 1992, that is the subject of this chronicle.

1. QSL process was installed with a multi-million dollar expense and eventually placed on line in early 1990
2. The newly updated Zinc Plant produces a“Slime” that was rich in many lesser metals including Lead and many precious metals that needed to be further processed by the Lead Smelter
3. The QSL process operating equipment could not satisfactorily process this “Slime” rendering the Lead Smelter uneconomic and inefficient to continue operating in this manner.
4. A decision was reached by the collective management, that some serious corrections were needed in the process to prevent economic disaster.
5. The original Kivcet process technology had been proven capable of dealing with this “Slime” effectively
6. A decision was made to renovate the QSL operation with the Kivcet technology while the Smelter would operate, albeit uneconomically during the process.
7. This was all in conjunction with a serious drop in world metal prices and consequent demand
8. At this time, the financial loans and support entered into a crisis mode with the Financiers dictating a cash action plan as to how to recover the failed QSL costs
9. Roger became the Leader during this difficult time in Cominco Ltd history.

The Financiers were adamant that Cominco Ltd take immediate steps to rectify the losing proposition at the Trail Plant and so issued an ultimatum and a time frame within which a substantial change would take place that would result in financing recovery.

This chronicle will not deal with the process that Cominco Ltd used in initiating this Plan of Action to secure its position with its Financiers as this is outside the scope and expertise of this writer.

What is known is that the following was some of what was included in that Plan of Action:

1. Market some of the Cominco Ltd properties to raise cash
   1. Sale of Brilliant Dam near Castlegar, B.C.
   2. Sale of West Kootenay Power & Light Co. Ltd
2. Meet with USWA and discuss ways in which wages and labor costs could be controlled. This was where Doug Swanson became involved as the USWA President
3. Meet with local municipalities that were the Cominco Ltd municipal tax base and reduce the actual tax as well as control the rise in tax levy. This was where Doug became involved from his position as Chair of the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB)
4. Meet with Cominco Suppliers and reduce the cost of purchases. This was spear headed by the Job Protection Commissioner (JPC) appointed by the provincial government as some of his contributions to this Plan
5. Obtain special grants from:
   1. Federal Government
   2. Provincial Government
6. There were likely other items on the list that is outside the scope of this chronicle.

A A Team was assembled to deal with all this Plan of Action which consisted primarily of:

1. Cominco Ltd:
   1. Roger Watson
   2. Others that assisted Roger
2. Regional District of Kootenay Boundary
   1. Doug Swanson, Chair
   2. Larry Robinson, Administrator
   3. Elaine Kumar, Administrative Assistant
3. B.C. Provincial Government
   1. Job Protection Commissioner (William (Bill) Sleeman, as researched by Carol Vanelli Worosz)
4. Union of Steelworkers of America
   1. Doug Swanson, President Local 480
   2. Ron Schmidt, Business Agent
   3. Jim Saare, President of Staff Union 9740

Developing the Plan of Action was a fundamental start to the monumental task of implementation. It is at this point that this chronicle will illustrate how these two individuals, Roger and Doug, became the Leaders whose challenge was to convince their respective counterparts; that there would be no alternative except total cooperation and commitment or all could be lost.

Firstly, they needed to have faith and trust in each other.  Throughout their previous bouts in Labor / Management negotiations, they were able to achieve that  … so they feverishly took on this task with abandon. The entire populace of Greater Trail, the  Province of British Columbia and Canada, needed a victory on all fronts or their primary source of employment would disappear.

Championship performances were not a new frontier for the Greater Trail Community as in the past; the Community has provided outstanding creativity in providing:

• Two (2) world championship Hockey Teams in 1939 and 1961
• National Curling Champions
• National Hockey League players
• National League Baseball players
• Track and Field Champions
• Little League National Champions
• Noted Scholars of all disciplines
• National Labor Leaders
• Technology to operate the largest Smelter of Lead, Zinc, Silver, Antimony and many rare metals, in the world,
• Other

Faced with an industrial financial crisis, the Community gathered its strengths and set aside its weaknesses to win over this challenge.

The chosen Team began its work and the following accomplishments ensued:

1. Federal assistance grants were applied for and received
2. Provincial grants were applied for and received
3. Municipal taxes were lowered
4. Provincial taxes were lowered
5. The Province of British Columbia purchased the generating power dams from Cominco Ltd
   1. Brilliant Dam
6. West Kootenay Power & Light Co Ltd was sold to the B.C. Government
7. Negotiations with the United Steelworkers of America resulted in:
   1. A moratorium and ceiling on wage increases
   2. Early buy-out retirement packages from Tradesmen
8. Management personnel early retirement packages were negotiated
9. A reduction in pricing from Cominco Ltd Suppliers
10. Other

Roger became intricately involved with senior management in convincing them of the various actions that were necessary to achieve success. This was not an easy task as one can imagine.  There were many meetings, disagreements and debates along the way. All this was calmly managed with the professional skills that Roger had developed over the years.

In a discussion at a social lunch with Roger in 1993, the discourse went something like this: “So Roger, how do you feel having to find methods to reduce the work force at the Plant when many of these people are those that you may have grown up and socialized with in the past since Trail is your home town,” I asked?

“Well you see, Elmer,” he responded slowly, “It was not a situation that I was able to choose. It was dictated by the Bank,” he added. “Get it there, or we pull the plug!”

“I know that people stare at me and wonder what kind a person I really am when my primary function is to eliminate their jobs,” he continued. “We installed the equipment that could process our ores with instrumentation and robotic control systems thereby reducing approximately 500 positions.

The installation of the Zinc Plant achieved several benefits:

• A hazardous working environment was mechanized so that workers would not have to work in an unhealthy place. Now robotic systems perform this function.
• The result also increased production of zinc with a better quality.

“I understand the production line personnel changes but I still have difficulty with determining how your entire operation can function with less maintenance personnel,” I questioned. “I am perplexed with how Cominco can encourage early retirement of its  senior tradesmen and research and production staff when they possess so much knowledge.

From what you tell me, I understand that you also have a ‘freeze’ on any new hiring policy.  How can you operate under those conditions?” Now, I was really interested

“The terms of our financial recovery provided no options for compromise,” he looked at me with a serious face. “Do it or that is it!” Roger explained the Banker’s ultimatum in no uncertain terms.

Doug, in turn, had to deal with his union who needed convincing that this was not just another company ploy to strip workers of their hard fought achievements in their past bargaining. This was not an easy task but Doug was able to get the support that he needed.

In a discussion at lunch, June 07, 2012, Doug and Lorne explained their roles as Instrument Mechanics, “We are Job Eliminators,” they both confessed. “It is our trade and expertise to install systems that will operate without an Operator at a switch, For example, a light on an Operator’s panel would indicate that a vessel requires emptying. We would install an activating control that would automatically perform that function. The result is a job lost,” they explained.

“The USWA was very much aware that survival of the Plant required modernization to ensure that the processed price of metal would stay competitive on the world markets where our Employer needed to compete,” Doug was matter of fact in his statement. “We all knew what needed to get done!”

Doug then needed to convince his political counterparts in Greater Trail municipalities that this was indeed a real crisis and without tax relaxations, the struggle to keep Cominco in Trail, B.C. could be lost. Again this meant that all municipal budgets would need to be reduced during this time as Cominco Ltd paid the greatest share of the municipal tax levy.

This tremendous overall action plan provided the financial resources to permit the completion of financing required to overhaul the challenged QSL process to be converted to the Kivcet process while the Smelter was able to operate. Construction was completed and an efficiently modern Smelter became a reality. The resulting designs used, also launched Cominco Ltd into an environmentally sound Smelter and a leader in world smelting technology.

This chronicle is s tribute to two humble local heroes, Roger Watson and Doug Swanson who spearheaded this recovery so that future citizens in Greater Trail will have employment stability for many years into the future.

Cominco Ltd became Teck and it now continues with the policies of modernizing its processes. It is now installing additional furnaces in its Lead side smelter in 2012 as this chronicle was written.

Doug took advantage of the Early Retirement Package and retired from Cominco Ltd in 1994 and continues his original Instrumentation Trade by operating Kootenay Controls Ltd which performs installation and advice to local industry requiring instrumentation expertise. Lorne White works with Doug.

An interesting recollection by Doug was his visit to his Doctor at the end of the crisis when the Doctor prescribed a one month leave of absence due to his extreme stress condition. Cominco and USWA both agreed to this leave. After the month elapsed, Doug went back to the Doctor for a checkup. The Doctor talked to him for a few minutes and advised “Yes, you can go back to work now.”

“Please explain, Doctor, how is it that you have made this diagnosis without a stethoscope and any other physical examination?” the surprised Doug enquired.

The Doctor responded with,” The last time I talked to you every second word started with f__.” He then added, “I can see now that you have basically eliminated it from your vocabulary and so you have essentially recovered fully.”

Roger Watson accepted a senior management promotion to Head Office in Vancouver. One always wonders whether the stress under which Roger operated through the turbulent times during the crisis contributed to his cancer and eventual demise. A special tribute to Roger by Cominco Ltd was the donation of $400,000 to the Cancer Foundation in his name.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++ END  +++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lastest edit: June 15, 2012

Information derived from:

1. Recollections, EWV discussions with Roger Watson (deceased) at various dates during 1990 through 1993 in a social friendship exchange
2. Discussions,  EWV with Doug Swanson May 23, 2012 at Americano Restaurant, Trail, B.C.
3. Discussions, EWV with Doug Swanson May 31, 2012 at Americano Restaurant, Trail, B.C.
4. Discussions, EWV with Doug Swanson and Lorne White June 07, 2012 at Americano Restaurant, Trail, B.C.
5. Discussion with Doug Swanson and Lorne White June 14, 2012 at Americano Restaurant, Trail, B.C.
6. Michael T. Martin, June 18, 2012 by phone as well as email since

Many thanks to the following for contributions:

1. Linda Watson approval of this draught September 28, 2012 by email, thanks
2. Doug Swanson approval of this draught October 01, 2012 by email, thanks