Obituary: Oliver Elliot "Ollie" Hagler, 4 June 1921 - 25 July 2003, Tucson, Arizona
Replies: 9
1980 Strike at Magma Copper's underground mine, San Manuel, Az
| jdferrin (View posts) | Posted: 2 Jul 2005 12:12AM GMT |
Classification: Query
Surnames: Brown, Busse, Cole, Eske, Ford, Gerdon, Hagler, Hogue, Kempton, Luscan, Salas, Stanford,
Dear Jo,
That strike was in 1980.
The instructors in the Training Dept. were Richard Cole, who somehow managed to avoid going underground most of the time; Ollie Hagler, Wyman Eske - a former salvage miner who was one of my favorite people there; Frank Salas, a big fat guy who was a former head of the union who had apparently done a good job for the company while he was union president; Howard Hogue, another favorite person of mine, and Dave Brown. The head of the dept. was Sandy Gerdon, who wasn't a well-liked or well-respected person.
Mine Safety Dept. personnel included Ward Lucas, Grant "Stick" Kempton , Geoff Busse, Keith Stanford and Matt Ford.
I don't recall you, but do remember that there were often "summer hires" working in the training dept.
Actually, at the time of the strike, I wasn't a certified MSHA instructor yet; I was a time-card employee and had been working on "temporary assignment" in the training dept. to produce Audio-Visual training programs - doing the writing, photography, recording, production and even narration - for nearly a year. So I used the "time off" during the strike" to attend the Univ. of Arizona and take Mining Engineering courses as a full-time student. When the strike ended, there were only about 2 weeks left in the semester but I couldn't get time off to finish the classes, so I had to take an F in a few of them, which was really a sore point with me. Then, after the strike, my application to become a salaried employee (put in long before the strike) was finally approved, and I had to take a pay cut of nearly $4000.00 per year. When I objected, I was told I could either take the position I applied for at the wages offered, or be fired, though I didn't know that a pay cut would be part of the "advancement" to a salaried position.
Perhaps you recall this incident during the strike: there was an old derilect trailer house which had been used at the mine, but wasn't used any more. It was towed up on a hill far away from anything else on the mine site, ostensibly for use as a guard shack during the strike, and one night it was "blasted", an event which Magma tried to represent must have been done by striking miners. I didn't think that was the case, nor did my step-dad, who was a asst. shift foreman at the mine. My reasoning was that if a miner wanted to blast something during the strike, they'd have taken out the railroad bridge between the mine and the plant, not a derilect, unused trailer sitting on a hill. I still believe that some salaried Magma employee blasted that trailer to try to make the striking miners look bad in the press.
Though I greatly enjoyed my work at the mine, liked and respected many of the people I knew there and still have many vivid memories from the mine, it is also true that the company itself was, due to favoritism and underhandedness on the part of some people in positions of power there, not a good place to work.
I seldom think of this aspect of working there; I prefer to recall the fun, excitment and friendships I had while working at Magma.
Jerry
That strike was in 1980.
The instructors in the Training Dept. were Richard Cole, who somehow managed to avoid going underground most of the time; Ollie Hagler, Wyman Eske - a former salvage miner who was one of my favorite people there; Frank Salas, a big fat guy who was a former head of the union who had apparently done a good job for the company while he was union president; Howard Hogue, another favorite person of mine, and Dave Brown. The head of the dept. was Sandy Gerdon, who wasn't a well-liked or well-respected person.
Mine Safety Dept. personnel included Ward Lucas, Grant "Stick" Kempton , Geoff Busse, Keith Stanford and Matt Ford.
I don't recall you, but do remember that there were often "summer hires" working in the training dept.
Actually, at the time of the strike, I wasn't a certified MSHA instructor yet; I was a time-card employee and had been working on "temporary assignment" in the training dept. to produce Audio-Visual training programs - doing the writing, photography, recording, production and even narration - for nearly a year. So I used the "time off" during the strike" to attend the Univ. of Arizona and take Mining Engineering courses as a full-time student. When the strike ended, there were only about 2 weeks left in the semester but I couldn't get time off to finish the classes, so I had to take an F in a few of them, which was really a sore point with me. Then, after the strike, my application to become a salaried employee (put in long before the strike) was finally approved, and I had to take a pay cut of nearly $4000.00 per year. When I objected, I was told I could either take the position I applied for at the wages offered, or be fired, though I didn't know that a pay cut would be part of the "advancement" to a salaried position.
Perhaps you recall this incident during the strike: there was an old derilect trailer house which had been used at the mine, but wasn't used any more. It was towed up on a hill far away from anything else on the mine site, ostensibly for use as a guard shack during the strike, and one night it was "blasted", an event which Magma tried to represent must have been done by striking miners. I didn't think that was the case, nor did my step-dad, who was a asst. shift foreman at the mine. My reasoning was that if a miner wanted to blast something during the strike, they'd have taken out the railroad bridge between the mine and the plant, not a derilect, unused trailer sitting on a hill. I still believe that some salaried Magma employee blasted that trailer to try to make the striking miners look bad in the press.
Though I greatly enjoyed my work at the mine, liked and respected many of the people I knew there and still have many vivid memories from the mine, it is also true that the company itself was, due to favoritism and underhandedness on the part of some people in positions of power there, not a good place to work.
I seldom think of this aspect of working there; I prefer to recall the fun, excitment and friendships I had while working at Magma.
Jerry