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Jorge Garcia-Orgales, Union Representative, United Steelworkers
Redemption books are many. But a book where redemption is found through involvement in union health and safety work is a rare thing. Jim Williams’ Rock Reject, set in an asbestos mine in Northern British Columbia, is such a book.
The somber and tough miner’s life is perfectly reflected in Rock Reject. To the dust, noise, heavy work and danger of the job, miners add many hours of loneliness and boredom. Peter, the protagonist in the book, has fled his life in Toronto to find himself labouring in the hellish environment of the asbestos mine’s primary concentrator, rock reject. As many union activists do, he becomes drawn into union work almost by accident, and he joins the struggle to improve the working and living conditions in the mine, the townsite and the nearby Native community.
The living conditions described in Rock Reject (set in 1975) are different today in Canada, with better rooms, internet, swimming pools and gyms. But globally, the mining industry continues its history of destorying life and the environment for profit. While the damage done in Canada is not as severe now as in the past, due to the hard work of union and community activists, abroad the industry behaves as ever. The conditions described in Rock Reject, and far worse, are the working and living conditions experienced by miners in Peru, Chile, Argentina, Mozambique, Nigeria and many other countries.
Rock Reject captures very well not only the life in the mine, but dynamics in the union. The union is a reflection of society. Some workers are racist, self-interested, or misogynistic, and the union leaders must deal with that. Rock Reject shows that progressive ideas do not appear magically. No one is perfect in Rock Reject but we learn that by working together, pulling together, we can build a better world. - Jorge Garcia-Orgales, Union Representative, United Steelworkers.