‘The next step is going to be a fatality’: United Steelworkers demand change in wake of alarming mine safety report

United Steelworkers Local 7619 President Kyle Wolff said inaction may lead to death at Teck Highland Valley Copper (HVC) mine in Logan Lake.

“Between a person not being in the right mindset, the lack of training, the lack of proper equipment or whatever it happens to be, the next step is going to be a fatality,” Wolff said, noting there were 43 dangerous occurrences at the mine over the last year and more this week.

The Office of the Chief Inspector of Mines conducted an investigation last summer into health and safety systems at HVC, prompted by rising incident rates, reports of bullying and harassment and formal discrimination complaints under the Mines Act.

Data was collected from more than 270 employees anonymously, including workers, supervisors and management.

The investigation report published in December is alarming, unearthing concerns over bullying and harassment, intimidation, threats of violence, racist comments, females being made to feel unwanted, equipment and training insufficiencies and a plethora of safety red flags.

“If we don’t start to address those issues from a psychological behaviour aspect of understanding why employees are saying they can’t speak up and start addressing the bullies – the bullies that work up there – then nothing will change,” Wolff said.

“How can you be safe when you’re afraid to speak up?”

Wolff said intimidation from management discourages disclosure and there is no formal language for bullying and harassment complaints in the B.C. Mines Act or Health, Safety and Reclamation Code for Mines in B.C.

“We’ve advocated for it and there will be massive changes coming in February and March of this year,” Wolff said. “The ministry hasn’t been able to step in because they’re unable to do so.”

Concerns over dust control were heard frequently during the investigation, with recently introduced mandates for respirator masks raising eyebrows.

“What kind of dust have we been exposed to in the past?” Wolff said. “What kind of issues were we not being told about as workers? Silicosis is a real issue in our workplace.”

Wolff said complaints reported to HVC pertaining to poor road conditions have been ignored.

“Back conditions, broken spinal cords [and] fractured vertebrae are a real injury,” he said. “They are sustained on a regular basis. We complain about road conditions and they don’t improve.”

In a statement to CFJC Today, Teck notes nothing is more important than the health and safety of its employees and it has been working with United Steelworkers to strengthen health and safety performance and workplace culture at HVC.

“This work, which commenced in July 2025 and has entailed several joint meetings, will address the opportunities and recommendations identified in the report as well as other areas for collaboration and improvement,” the statement said.

“HVC is committed to highest standards of safety performance and has made improvements to safety standards in the past 12 months.”

Wolff said Teck has taken no formal action to remedy problems – including after seeing recommendations in the report – despite knowing about them for years.

“We had a time for both parties to work collaboratively to come up with a joint response to these issues,” Wolff said. “So far, the employer has come up with their own responses. Those responses are almost identical to what we’re doing today – further discipline, further concepts of policy and procedure, further ramping up on actions against employees for doing the right thing.”

Quotes from workers, supervisors and management are included in the report.

“Safety is a fight here… there is a safety culture of fear,” one worker said.

“Union promotes a toxic culture to work in [and] they don’t hold their members accountable,” one management member said.

Supervisors say they are confident in their own practices, but feel caught between conflicting pressures, often navigating disputes with more experienced workers and facing production demands. They express concern over “follow-through” from management.

“I see both staff and employees need to take safety altogether,” one supervisor said. “It’s not just one group that needs to fix it.”

Manager complaints include the union promoting a toxic culture and the union being obstructive to discipline, with workers disregarding rules despite management’s strong emphasis on safety culture.

“I think the excuse is to continue to say that it’s somehow the union’s responsibility, the union’s fault, that we’re in this place right now,” Wolff said. “We’re not responsible for the truck maintenance. We’re not responsible for the mills falling apart. We’re not responsible for the culture. We can be a participant in how we fix it and that’s what we’re trying to do now.”

The report includes notes on “black ops jobs” being conducted under the cover of darkness – “If you can’t do it right do it at night,” is a phrase attributed to several hourlies and a supervisor – poor mill structural integrity and broken equipment running.

Several quotes are included in a section of the report on bullying and harassment.

Among them: “Belittling junior employee on bus, racist comments on the buses and in the dry, making females feel unwanted in the workplace with unsafe horseplay.”

Another one: “Subtle racism towards myself based on the fact that I am First Nations.”

And one more: “Supervisor threatened to take two employees to the parking lot and ‘tune them up.’”

Quotes in a section dedicated to psychological safety appear to reveal grievous shortfalls.

“This place has the worst safety culture ever,” one employee said.

Added another employee: “Would never want (my children) to go through mental anguish we get put through.”

There are also signs of good will and hope for collaboration.

“Everyone means well and wants to get the work done, but we need to stop and concentrate on the basics.”

Union-management tension and perceived inconsistencies in disciplinary practices have weakened trust and psychological safety, according to the report.

Teck corporate, HVC management and the union are scheduled to meet on Thursday [Jan. 29].

“We have demands now,” Wolff said. “We want this workplace to be safer than it is today and if it means that we have to take further action to get there, we will do that.”