“We were just living life, and all of a sudden, everything came to a screeching halt,” she said, when Roy, a millwright, was laid off.
Salinas has a small online wellness business to help support the family, but they rely on Roy for the bulk of their income. The family has cut back on extras like dining out, and worry, too, about the rising cost of groceries. Roy could have transferred to a Cleveland-Cliffs’ mine in Michigan, but the couple has a teenage daughter and they didn’t want to move while she was still in high school.
“It’s been hard on him because he feels lost,” Salinas said of her husband. “He’s 56 years old and here he is applying for school, and it’s so humbling.”
She doesn’t see the shutdown as something that will be resolved soon.
“They’re letting the pits fill up with water,” Salinas said. “It actually made me sick. It feels personal.”
Missy Salinas, whose husband, Roy, recently got laid off from the Minorca Mine, at their home in Mountain Iron, Minn. (Erica Dischino Special to the St)
Chisholm resident Jon Bird is a crusher with Minorca and a fourth-generation miner. He also has a psychology degree and is licensed to practice as an alcohol and drug counselor.