"High-paying jobs leaving town"

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February 25th, 2011 8:26 AM

"High-paying jobs leaving town"

Craig Costello
Millwright in the smelter

I’m a stationary mechanic. I work on crushers, conveyors, pumps, convertors, furnaces, elevators – everything down at the mine that’s stationary. I repair things that are damaged and do preventative maintenance to keep things running.

I work in one of the buildings they’re trying to close, so that job will be gone. I can go underground to the mine, but I don’t know how many mechanics they’re going to need for underground. There are quite a few maintenance people, so I don’t know. I have enough seniority. I might be safe and able to move into another position. But what if they shut the next thing down?

To see the looks on some of your friends’ faces, and people you work with who have been here twenty-odd years who find out that in four years they’re going to have to change jobs, or maybe go underground to the mine, that’s kind of shocking. And then there are other guys who are just starting, and wondering if they’re going to have a job in four years. There are lots of upset people, and it makes you wonder how much longer you want to stay here.

I’m probably looking at leaving. To be honest, when you talk about getting rid of 500 jobs, it’s 500 families in this community, 500 empty homes, and then those people’s kids aren’t going to school, so now there’s less teachers, maybe less schools open, less businesses open in town. So yeah, maybe it’s 500 jobs for Vale... but in our community it’s huge.

I have friends whose wives work for Vale, or their wives are nurses or other professionals in town. When you talk about families leaving, you’re talking about a lot of high-paying jobs leaving town.

For me, I have a three year old son, and my wife’s a nurse at the hospital. So two professionals are going to leave town. We’re not 100% decided as to where we’ll go.

This was kind of the last nail in the coffin. I can’t sit here and watch friends maybe get laid off in a couple of years. I can’t watch this town die anymore. So that’s kind of it for us.