Costas Halavrezos: What do these miners face when they walk out of the mine on their last day?

Steve Sutherland: They face a loss of identity, a loss of security, and they certainly face an uncertain future. For the guys who didn't get a pension, they might have received a severance that will carry them and their families for a year or two. A lot of the guys I've talked to over the past few years didn't have their high school, they didn't have a trade, and they've never worked anywhere else but in a coal mine, so they really don't know where to go from that first step out of the mine.

This morning I spoke with Dave Musgrave, who worked in and around the pits for 23 years. Last year he voluntarily took his severance. He could have stayed on until now but he decided to get out early because he said he just didn't see any future for the mines. He didn't see any point in prolonging the whole experience. But he says that final walk across the parking lot is a scary thing.

Dave Musgrave: "Well, I remember the day I did sever, I went to Glace Bay and signed the papers and I was kind of upset. I remember sitting in the parking lot, and had the radio on, CBC of course, and The Furies song came on and the verse in the song is "I'm too old to work, I'm too young to die. Tell me where will I go, my family and I?" That kind of made me a little shaky for a few minutes. My first reaction was I'm going to run back inside there and tell them to tear up these papers. I'm staying. I'm not going to do this."

Steve Sutherland: But in the end he did do it, Costas. Instead of running back into the DEVCO building, he turned on the car, put it in gear, and drove out of that parking lot for the last time.

Costas Halavrezos: What did he do next?

Steve Sutherland: He took training. He took a technical math course -- which was terrifying for a guy who hadn't seen a pi-r-squared since high school (and it would be terrifying for me and it hasn't been as long as for him.) And he went to the University College of Cape Breton and became a certified millwright. He said it's been a tough haul, but now it's behind him. And he feels sorry for the workers out at the Prince Mine who are just starting down that road.

Dave Musgrave: "I met a gentleman the other day, an old pit buddy, Of course I asked him what his plans were -- I knew his last day was today. And he looked at me and he said, 'What am I going to do? I'm only a coal miner.' You know, that's just a poor attitude to take. Low self-esteem. It makes me angry but I actually said the same thing. But you're more then just a coal miner. If you think about what you did. You did mechanical work, you installed conveyer systems, you worked pneumatics, hydraulics, you did masonry work, you did carpenter work, every type of work you've done in the mine, whether you know it or not. Like I say, don't sell yourself short. Never mind this 'I'm only a coal miner,' because that doesn't hold any water."

Steve Sutherland: Last spring, Dave and three of his friends from the pit went out west, and they've been working steadily on contract ever since on industrial sites in Alberta and British Columbia.

Costas Halavrezos: What was the turning point for him, the point where he decided he could move on and learn a new trade?

Steve Sutherland: There was a lot of thought, he said, that went into what he was going to do next after he severed and he said the big solutions came from the Career Opportunity Centre.

There are two centres, one in Glace Bay and one in North Sydney. They were established in April of 2000, and they're funded by DEVCO and Human Resources Development Canada to the tune of $500,000 a year. They're staffed by ex-DEVCO workers, whose goal is to help their colleagues find new work. Steve Deveaux is the co-ordinator and I spoke with him yesterday. He was a transportation specialist for 21 years at DEVCO.

Steve Deveaux: When a guy walks through a door, you've got to remember he spent 20-plus years in a coal mine and that's his identity, that's all he knows, coal-mining, and all of a sudden his career is gone. So he's coming through our door with a great deal of fear. What he doesn't realize is that he's not alone. It's our job to start with the individual to show him that he's got a lot to offer people.

Steve Sutherland: So far, Deveaux says 1,100 ex-mine workers have come through the door and, of those people, 260 of them have found full-time work with the help of the centre

Costas Halavrezos: What services do they offer?

Steve Sutherland: They can write resumes, they can help plan interviews and write cover letters. They have computers there, and can help out with job searches. They have a basic computer training course. Each of the workers such as Steve Deveaux is trained as a career counsellor, so they can help answer those tough questions about where to go next. They even do a Myers Briggs personality test to give you some idea of what other career you might like to train for. They also offer training courses, or access to training, from high school equivalency and math, to first aid and CPR. And Deveaux says it's not just what they offer, it's how they offer it: Many of the courses are delivered right there at the centre.

Steve Deveaux: You've got to remember these guys are 40-plus years old. If you drop them into the community college setting immediately or if you had to drop them into a university setting with kids basically their children's age, how would you feel being dropped into that kind of situation? But if they can do it in this centre with guys they've worked with their whole career, they motivate each other.

Steve Sutherland: Deveaux says DEVCO miners have gone on to become electricians, mechanics, plumbers, hard-rock miners... a few have actually become chefs... and there are three guys working down in Bermuda right now.

Costas Halavrezos: Bermuda aside, where are most of these workers finding new jobs?

Steve Sutherland: Many of them are finding out they have to bite the bullet, and move away from Cape Breton. Not Bermuda for most of them, at least elsewhere in the province and more often out of the province. Some have taken their families and moved, and others, like Dave Musgrave, commute back and forth to short-term jobs elsewhere in the country. Now, of course that's often not their first choice. They'd like to stay at home. On the other hand, being fired wasn't their first choice, either. Musgrave says he would've liked to retire at DEVCO. But since that can't happen, he's happy with the doors that have been opened to him.

Dave Musgrave: "I do miss the mines. I miss the men, the camaraderie. Everyone does. But, like I say, you can't look back. You have to be positive and look ahead. Put that pit stuff behind you. That's all you can do."

Steve Sutherland: Now, it seems like a good time to point out that there is some good news, some miners are going on and they're getting more work. Two hundred and sixty people is wonderful, but the total number of employees who have been displaced at DEVCO is 1,650.

Some of those people got pensions, and some won't come to the centre for help... but that still leaves quite a few people out there in the ranks of the unemployed. And after the last shift leaves the Prince Mine tonight (November 23, 2001) at 11 p.m., there'll be 130 more.