Western Railroad Discussion > Copper Basin Still Shutdown

The strike by the United Steel Workers is now over six weeks old .No new negotiations are scheduled between Asarco and unions.The "last best and final offer" was submtted by Asarco on November 14,2019 and everyone went home mad.I hope an agreement can be reached soon so the workers can go back to work and enjoy the holidays.The strike has shutdown the smelter and concentrator complex at Hayden, as well as the mine at Ray.Also affected is the Sahaurita complex south Tucson.I am fearfull this may have long term consequences for miners, as well as the railroad .Here is a couple of images from happier times of the Unit train.at Hayden smelter..Bill Webb.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/19 07:06 by spider1319.

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Thanks for the update, Bill.
When I was there earlier this month, the place looked mighty sad.  Almost all the buildings in the town were in a bad state of disrepair; broken windows, etc.
The cop shop seemed to be the only building that was occupied, and it was odd to see such a small town with so many police vehicles present.  About eight were parked outside, and as I exited, about 1/2 dozen more were headed in to town.  It sure seemed like there was about to be trouble, so I didn't hang around.

Hopmere Hank

The cops probably brought in some extra help because of the strike.

Hayden's decline started after the town of Ray was consumed by the mine expansion and moved to Kearney.As a new town,Keaney became the residential and retail center for the area.I am afraid of the law of unintended conseqences may apply to this situation and cause some type of permanent shutdown of the railroad.Remember,this I beklieve,is the last of the ore/concentrate rail haul in the U.S.Bill Webb

It seems the ASARCO had been running without a union contract for a while.  When I was working for CBRY a year ago, there was mumbling about a strike.  It seems it was an annual event with few union types getting all riled up, then cooler heads prevailed and everything went back to normal.

I count myself fortunate to have retired off the CBRY last January when I got my 360 months in....

The whole Hayden/Winkleman/Kearney area is a bit odd.  Here is a location that is many miles from a major metropolitan area, with a lot of good blue collar money being made by the locals, but in the last 50 years there has been very little in the way of new construction or creation of new businesses.  Lots of shuttered stores, about the only "recent" construction has been a grocery store in Kearney, a Family Dollar in Kearney and a nice gas station/convenience store in Winkleman.