The 2018 United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6166 election finally came to a close in the early morning of April 10, with members Warren Luky and Tony Colbourne emerging as the union’s new president and vice-president, respectively.
“I want to thank everybody who’s been involved with the election, thank the people who supported me and the people who helped out,” said Luky, who’s worked at Inco/Vale for over 20 years and currently serves as the recording secretary for USW Local 6166.
With an additional two decades of mining experience under his belt, Colbourne told the Thompson Citizen that he is definitely looking forward to developing his skills as a leader and taking on a new level of responsibility.
“After being a trustee for six years it was time to move up into the executive,” said Colbourne, who also celebrated his 50th birthday on April 10. “I felt that we had to take a stand for the membership, because there was a lot of experienced people leaving and if you don’t get involved you’ll never grow.”
Even though Luky and Colbourne are both in high spirits following their election wins, the pair is fully aware of how unstable the local mining industry is right now.
Not only has Vale’s Birchtree Mine been put on care and maintenance, but the smelter and refinery is about to close down in the third quarter of 2018. Because of this, Vale’s overall workforce will be reduced to less than 800 people by the end of the year, a far cry from the 1,300 strong they finished with in 2017.
Additionally, the union is losing many senior members due to retirement, which will put a lot of pressure on its next generation of leaders, especially since their current collective bargaining agreement with Vale expires in September 2019.
“There’s almost an overwhelming bunch of information that has to be digested and an overwhelming sense of the impending challenges that are coming into this next period of time when the company transitions to mine, mills,” said Luky.
Despite these potentially challenging obstacles on the horizon, Luky remains optimistic about this new executive’s ability to roll with the punches and deal with these problems head on.
“Every organization has a point renewal and regrowth and that’s where we are right now,” said Luky. “So it’s an exciting time and we’re going to be dealing with … people’s issues today and the issues of tomorrow.”
Elsewhere in the 2018 USW Local 6166 election, Baltazar Flores beat out Robert Ellsworth to become the union’s new treasurer, while Jim MacIntyre, Todd Burnside and Randy Wischenewski were voted in to become the organization’s official trustees.
While their campaigns for union president and vice-president weren’t successful, Luke Robinson and James Crawley were elected as members of the grievance committee.
Overall, 47 per cent of the union’s membership turned out to vote in this new executive, all of whom will be officially sworn in following the next general membership meeting on May 16.
The full results of the 2018 USW Local 6166 election are as follows (winners are in bold).
President
James Crawley
Warren Luky
Vice-president
Luke Robinson
Tony Colbourne
Treasurer
Robert Ellsworth
Baltazar Flores
Recording secretary
Travis Heart
Financial secretary
Sheila Thompson
Inside guard
Chris Delay
Michelle Tomashewski
Outside guard
Glen Boxell
Guide
Harald Stadlbauer
Justin Lefebvre
Trustees
Jim MacIntyre
Keith Compton
Todd Burnside
Randy Wischenewski
Graham Walker
Even Bercier
Grievance committee members
Jim MacIntyre
James Crawley
Luke Robinson
Travis Hart
Even Bercier
Graham Walker
Randy Wischenewski
Robert Ellsworth
Baltazar Flores
Tony Colbourne
Glen Boxell
Harald Stadlbauer
Todd Burnside
