Aubry

ORDER

Plaintiff Viceroy Gold Corporation (“Viceroy”) operates a gold processing facility in San Bernardino County called the Castle Mountain Mine (“Castle Mountain"). Castle Mountain is a non-union mine employing workers who operate equipment to recover gold ore from rock. The ore processing is performed by complex machinery utilizing a substantially automated procedure. Witt Decl in Supp at ¶¶4-6.

Castle Mountain operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, using rotating shifts. The mine workers currently work eight-hour shifts and forty-hour work weeks. Because housing near the facility is limited, many of the mine workers commute seventy-five miles or more to the mine from Las Vegas, Nevada and its environs. Many workers spend three hours a day commuting to and from work on highways that are narrow and unsafe. During the last two years, two employees of Castle Mountain sub-contractors died in auto accidents during their commutes. Witt Decl in Supp at ¶ 10.

The vast majority of Viceroy’s employees at Castle Mountain have expressed dissatisfaction with the eight-hour work day; they prefer twelve-hour shifts. In October 1992, thirty-two out of thirty-two employees…