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- FMISUCKS, on 02/23/2009, -0/+0Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold is cutting more than just copper!
Recently over 600 people have been given their walking notices at the Chino Mine site, just outside of Silver City, New Mexico. Many of these miners have worked at the mine for over thirty years. The miners and city officials have been told by Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold that these layoff's were necessary due to current commodity prices, but is that the real truth?
Yes and no. Everyone who earns their livings in the mining industry is aware that metal prices have dropped drastically over the last six months. Many people who have been given their walking papers understand why the recent layoff's were necessary but unfortunately do not know the whole story. The board of FMI has used the excuse of the drastic drop in commodity prices to weed out former Phelps Dodge employees from the organization, in favor of younger employees who earn significantly less than the employees they are replacing. While thousands are being given their walking papers, internal recruiters have been working day and night to replace many of them with younger employees who earn as little as half of much as their former counterparts.
This practice has not been limited to the corporate offices in Phoenix, Arizona. Despite giving over six hundred people their walking papers at the Chino mine site, David Rhoades HR staff has been very busy replacing many people with employees who are working for much less money. During the initial layoff's, a sign hung on the HR office in Silver City, which stated "We are hiring." It is rumored that the sign was taken down after a engineer who had been let go informed the HR Manager, Randy Ellison, that the sign was in bad taste. Though the sign has been taken down, it has not stopped the internal recruiters for FMI from hiring new people.
To understand these issues more clearly, consider the employee retaining business practices of the former Phelps Dodge corporation. The leadership of Phelps Dodge recognized that the mining business is the most dangerous industry in the world and that miners are subject to long term health problems associated with the airborne contaminants they breathe everyday on the job. To retain employees, Phelps Dodge awarded high paying jobs to relatives and immediate family members of their employees, regardless if they were qualified to do the job or not. You can be assured that when Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold purchased Phelps Dodge, they were aware of these practices and set about a plan to get rid of these employees. There are rumors abound that Richard Adkerson promised the former CEO of Phelps Dodge that he would take care of the Phelps Dodge people that were so beloved to the company. I don't think that the words "take care of" were offered in the spirit that FMI is defining it as today.
The biggest mining industry scam of the century
Who is being let go and who is staying? Despite the story that is being given to the public about economic hardships within the mining industry, most of the people who have been given their walking papers are former employees of Phelps Dodge and minorities that are rumored to be ill-favored to the Chino mines General Manager, David Rhoades and HR Manager, Randy Ellison. There is no secret amongst the management of the Chino mine, who by the way are all still in place, that prejudices against woman, Hispanics and African Americans are rampant within the leadership teams. The Chino mine leadership team has used every trick in the book, including ridiculous and unreasonable employee written testing, to run off the people they do not like. For the people they do like, these same testing scores were altered and or outright ignored. Many of the mine leadership's friends and family are still in place, even though many of them have absolutely no job function and or the abilities to perform the positions they are employed to do.
Despite the fact that they continue to live in the same community of all the people they are screwing over, David Rhoades and Randy Ellison are literally playing God with the lives of former employees and their families. Though they smile in the face of many, both of these megalomaniacs continue to hide behind "economic hardships has forced us to take these necessary actions" while continuing to hand walking papers to people on their secret hit lists, while retaining people on their secret keep lists. Not known to the general public and many of the laid off workforce, prior to the initial layoff's, all of the managers and senior human resources employees at the Chino mine site were given orders by David Rhoades to develop hit and keep lists for the employees of the Chino mine site. These lists were not developed by an employees job performance, salary or necessity to the mine operations, they were developed from prejudices and favoritism. It is a known fact amongst the management of Chino Mines that one high level employee was terminated for openly opposing the lists.
Many former employees and their families lives are unjustly being destroyed by David Rhoades and Randy Ellison. The employees who remain employed at the mines should remain because of their work performance and required functions, not because they are friends or family of the mines leadership teams. Many of the favored retained employees at the Chino mine site are known to be at the top of the list of the most incompetent employees who draw a paycheck with FMI. Changing job titles, using unfair testing to run people off while ignoring the testing scores of their family and friends, laying people off because of their sex and or the color of their skin, preserving the jobs of friends and or family, even though many of them cannot perform their job functions, is unfair and should not go unchallenged. I encourage everyone to write the New Mexico Department of Work Force Solutions and other local / state government officials and let your voice be heard. These atrocities should not go unpunished! If nothing else, when you encounter David Rhoades or Randy Ellison in the community, non-violently walk up to them and tell them what you think of their megalomaniac conduct. Why should they be able to walk around with a smile on their face amongst the former employees whose lives have been ruined by these two megalomaniacs?
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