ESTEVAN — Randy Seeman spent 49 years working at the mines in the Estevan area.
And if he had the chance to do it all again, he said he probably would.
Seeman retired from the mines last July, ending a career that spanned nearly half a century. He remained on the executive of the United Mine Workers of America Local 7606, as the Worker’s Compensation Board representative, until the end of May, ending a 29-year run in union leadership.
First came drilling rigs and B.C. mining
Seeman's first day on the job at the Estevan mines was Sept. 23, 1976. He previously spent a year working for Fording Coal in Elkford, B.C.
"I was a week out of school and I started on the drilling rigs, and I found out that ain’t for me. I was a little light for that job,” he recalled.
Along with a couple of other friends, Seeman headed out to B.C. for mining work. Seeman picked up his journeyman welding ticket in B.C. and was welding for Fording when the workers went on strike for six months.
“I came home and I was farming with my dad for a bit, and he asked ‘Why don’t you apply at the coal mine here in Estevan?' Let me tell you, the rest was history. They hired me in a week because I had my journeyman ticket, my welding ticket, and they were short tradesmen,” he said.
Seeman married his high school sweetheart and they had four children together.
At 49 years, Seeman has been told he has the title of the longest-tenured employee ever at the Estevan and Bienfait mines. Terry Rohatyn was there for 46 years, and Seeman said he knows of another worker who has 46 years of experience.
Three jobs, six owners
Many people who work at the mines have a variety of experiences. Not Seeman. He said he had three different roles. Seeman was a welder for 21 years, a plant operator in Bienfait for 11 and a utility man for the last 17.
“Like I told everybody, I worked from the top down. I went from the highest-paying job to the lowest-paying job," he said.
Utility man was basically a “glorified janitor”, cleaning all of the lunchrooms and the lunch trailers out in the field, but it was a good job, he said, because he was out and about, and he saw everybody each day. It's a job that requires a lot of seniority and it means a lot less stress, especially when compared to plant operator.
“You’re in charge of everything at the plant, and then you had guys underneath you. You made sure you didn’t have an explosion or anything else, and you have to make sure you’re on top of things. But when you’re looking after a furnace at 1,200 Celsius, lots can go wrong in a hell of a hurry.”
He started working for M&S (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) Coal. Through transactions, he also worked for Estevan Coal, Luscar Coal, Sherritt Coal, Prairie Mines and Royalty and finally Westmoreland Mining LLC. All of them treated him well, he said.
Being on the executive allowed him to travel throughout North America for meetings and other activities.
A lot has changed
Seeman said he enjoyed working at the mines because of the camaraderie with his co-workers.
“It was a darn good place to work. Everybody got along in general. You’d have the odd disagreements once in a while, but all in all, it’s a heck of a place to work. The benefits were good and the money was good.”
Still, a lot has changed and the work came with risks. During the M&S days, when working on the top of a dragline, they sat on a pair of two-foot by six-foot planks about 270-280 feet in the air, with no harness. Seeman tells the story to illustrate the difference in safety. Standards were always decent, though, and if someone had concerns, the company took measures to fix the problem.
And the size of the equipment changed. He recalled having 7200 and 7400 draglines that had 11-yard buckets. And the coal was closer to the plants and the surface. Trucks are now 165 metric tonnes instead of 60.
During his years on the executive, Seeman said a highlight came when he and Loretta Miller developed a modified duty program. If anybody suffered an injury, regardless of duration, options were available for the person to keep working and to retrain for another role.
The mines in the southeast went 11 years without a lost-time accident, he said, resulting in a considerable cost-saving in Worker’s Compensation Board rates. Employees earned their choice of prizes for on-the-job safety.
Time to retire
Now in his 70s, he’s not sure how much longer he could have remained on the job, but he still loved going to work. Seeman said he knew it was time to retire when he went to work one day and he was struggling to get through the shift. It was worse the next day, and Seeman explained the problem to his wife.
“'It’s time for you to retire’, she said. 'It’s time for you to pack it in’,” he recalled.
After his last day of work, Seeman said he was driving home from the mines, and as the trip went along, he was feeling better, which he believes is a sign that he did the right move.
Seeman admits that he wishes he would have left five years earlier. He and his wife have a retirement home at Kenosee Lake, which was built before he retired. It’s a beautiful area and the couple has made a lot of friends.
Their two sons live in the area. As for their daughters, one is in Summerville, S.C., and the other is in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This past winter was his first one away from work, and they spent most of the time in Summerville and Pensacola, Fla. He expects they will spend most of the winter down south again.
They also bought property in Kennedy, where they will be spend time gardening to keep them active. He enjoys going to auction and garage sales, and he has compiled some equipment.
Seeman said it was “great” to hear the provincial government’s plan to extend the life of the coal-fired generating fleet in Saskatchewan, because of the positive impact it will have on businesses in the area and on the economy.
