“We are well into our second generation here,” said Manager Stewart Reid, who has worked in the Red Lake area for nearly 40 years. An advocate of Campbell’s train-your-own-work-force approach to recruiting, he credits the company’s bonus system for keeping so many miners in the Red Lake camp.
Under the scheme, drillers who earn $16.78 per hour can double their wages if they work hard enough. That adds up to about $60,000 annually for miners working a 40-hour week, according to one of the company’s more experienced miners.
“It’s an important element in the wage structure, and without it we would never be able to keep men here,” says Reid. While some miners argue that a bonus scheme based on tonnage broken per month is hard to keep track of, the rewards are sufficient to keep them in a lifestyle which even banking executives might envy.
“There are more recreational vehicles (4-wheel drives, snowmobiles, and so on) in this town than you can shake a stick at,” says Robert Johnston, who grew up in Cochenour and who has worked as a miner at Campbell for 11 years. A detached house costs roughly $60,000 and apartments in nearby Red Lake rent for around $200 per month.
Working at Campbell can be lucrative. But to keep local families actively involved in the community, the company recently upgraded its recreation centre. In addition to a baseball diamond, it boasts a swimming pool, curling rink and gun club.
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