The price of oil (Juneau and, Fairbanks: homes, job openings, income)

[riceme]

I think Red Dog and Usibelli are the only US owned mines... Can that be right??

[Metlakatla]

It's sort of right. Red Dog is owned by one of the Native corporations and by a company based in Vancouver (CA).

Someone will come along and say that Red Dog is owned by Teck Alaska Incorporated, but that doesn't change the fact that the parent company is in Canada.

Greens Creek is owned by a U.S. corporation. It's kind of weird how that place is supposed to be one of the biggest employers in SE, but I've never met a single person who worked there.

[riceme]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

It's sort of right. Red Dog is owned by one of the Native corporations and by a company based in Vancouver (CA).

Someone will come along and say that Red Dog is owned by Teck Alaska Incorporated, but that doesn't change the fact that the parent company is in Canada.

Greens Creek is owned by a U.S. corporation. It's kind of weird how that place is supposed to be one of the biggest employers in SE, but I've never met a single person who worked there.

Well that's interesting... I am surely not the only one who thought Red Dog was local. And regarding Greens Creek, sounds like sort of a similar deal with Pogo (disregarding that they're owned by Sumitomo). I know one (singular... one! And I used to work for her) person who works in an office in Fairbanks (meaning not on the mine site) with three other people and aside from that I have never heard of, met or seen anyone who works out there. I have heard that the guys fly in and out from -48 which is disheartening if it's true since it's right outside of Fairbanks.

I am a little sensitive about importing labor, doesn't matter where it's from... it just doesn't sit right with me.

^Doesn't mean Pogo doesn't employ locals... I've just never met them and it strikes me as odd. I know guys who work at Fort Knox, Kensington, Red Dog, Usibelli, a handful of mines in -48... No one from Pogo except my old manager who works in town.

[Metlakatla]

It's owned by NANA and Teck Alaska. Teck Alaska is a subsidiary of a Canadian company.

Importing labor sometimes has to happen. The project I worked on tried really, really hard to hire locally, but if no one is interested, well, the work still needs to get done.

[riceme]

Oh I totally get that, I just get sensitive when there are locals who are willing and able but the company farms out the labor, usually at a fraction of the wage. Doesn't sound like that's what happened where you used to work.

[Metlakatla]

Where does that happen? ^^^

[riceme]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Where does that happen? ^^^

My hometown. Long sad story, they lowered the wages in the shop to such a level that the quality plummeted and they ended up shuttering the facility that used to support the whole town. Broke my heart a little bit.

[riceme]

Originally Posted by riceme

My hometown. Long sad story, they lowered the wages in the shop to such a level that the quality plummeted and they ended up shuttering the facility that used to support the whole town. Broke my heart a little bit.

It's a business tactic used by some companies when they don't want the bad press of making the announcement that they're closing a facility and shipping jobs to China, which is exactly what happened.

[Metlakatla]

That's horrible ^^^

[riceme]

Yeah... my mom and I used to work there.