N.Y. man given ‘pink slip' on his first day at Stillwater Mine

By Jan Falstad - 11/20/2008

BILLINGS — For Sam Gallup, a 24-year-old New Yorker recruited to Montana by Stillwater Mining Co., Monday was a bummer.

Gallup had just finished his first shift at the platinum and palladium mine near Nye when he got a recorded message on his telephone saying he was laid off. Unlike the 526 other employees given layoff notices Monday who will be paid through mid-January, Gallup's last check will be Dec. 1.

"I spent more than $2,000 and drove 2,048 miles to get here. Now I'm probably going to lose everything: My car, everything I own financially," Gallup said.

After reading about another probationary worker from Butte who also was laid off Monday, Gallup said he started computing distances.

"He's only four or five hours from home. I'm about 46 hours and 2,000 miles from home," he said. "And I just took all my gear to the mine Monday, and I'm not allowed to go up and collect my belongings." At least seven other miners with families recently moved from New York to Montana to work for Stillwater Mining, he said, but Gallup doesn't know if they have been laid off, too.

"There are people far more unfortunate than me, so I don't want to sound greedy, but what about me?" he said.

In August, Stillwater Mining executives traveled to Gouverneur, N.Y., to hire miners after the St. Lawrence Zinc company closed its mine and laid off about 200 people. Stillwater Mining recruited miners from that upstate New York area in 2001.

Stillwater Mining had a shortage of miners after an undisclosed number of miners quit last year after the company changed a popular work schedule of seven days on, seven days off.

In the 2007 annual report, Stillwater Mining Chairman and Chief Executive Frank McAllister said, "A schedule long used by the company to attract and retain miners from outside Montana created upset work force conditions beyond those expected by management." Even though production levels fell with staffing problems, the company said it had to change the schedule because the 35-hour work week was unaffordable. So the company intensified its recruiting efforts in other states.

Before heading for Montana, Gallup said, he called Stillwater Mining three times over the past month asking if his job was still there and was told it was. Once the company called him, asking if he had been watching the prices of platinum and palladium drop, but the official still said he still had a job waiting out West.

"They said there is a risk, but I didn't ever expect to come to work the first day and get told, ‘Bye,'" he said.

Despite the blow, Gallup is living in Billings with a friend and he wants to stay in Montana because it's beautiful. He plans eventually on inviting his girlfriend and her daughter to move here. Cashing in his 401(k) retirement savings account and reapplying for unemployment back home in New York are moves Gallup may take soon.

This miner, early in his working life, has already concluded that there is no job security.

"You can be drug-free, a hard worker, produce the most ore any mine could ever want and you still could be let go," Gallup said. "I just saw it happen at home, and I'm seeing it happen here in Montana."