Strike at Vale Inco looms

Information, ratification meetings set for later in week

Posted By Carol Mulligan

Posted 11 secs ago

There is a one in a trillion chance Vale Inco will sweeten its final contract proposal containing unacceptable concessions before more than 3,000 United Steelworkers receive it at information meetings Wednesday and Thursday, says USW District 6 director Wayne Fraser.

Contract talks broke off Monday at 11:30 a.m. between the Steelworkers and Vale Inco Ltd. after negotiators for the mining company told the union the proposal it had presented late Sunday night was its final offer.

Wayne Fraser, director of Steelworkers’ District 6, told reporters Monday afternoon his bargaining team will recommend members reject the company’s offer at ratification meetings set for Friday and Saturday, just hours before a 12:01 a.m. strike or lockout deadline July 12.

A rejection of Vale Inco’s offer is essentially a vote to strike, although the bargaining committee was already given a 90% strike mandate in a vote held in May.

Both the union and Vale Inco insist they are ready to return to bargaining, but Fraser said he cannot see that happening unless the company changes its bargaining position.

Fraser told reporters in a small meeting room at the Radisson Hotel he was “really saddened and disappointed” that his union’s efforts to bargain a collective agreement protecting the rights of members and the community had gone virtually nowhere since contract talks began April 7.

Fraser said he was outraged at the “arrogance” of Vale Inco, which is demanding major concessions from Steelworkers even though it has made more than $4 billion in profit in Sudbury in the last two and a half years — more than the former “Inco made in 10 or 11 years.”

Fraser would not get into specifics of Vale Inco’s settlement offer before it is presented to members.

But he said last week his negotiating team was not prepared to accept a reduced pension plan for new hires and cuts to Steelworkers’ nickel bonuses.

A source close to the negotiations told The Star the union is also fighting Vale Inco’s intention to eliminate seniority-based rights that allow workers to bid on and transfer to jobs from one plant or mine to another.

Vale Inco’s Sudbury spokesman, Steve Ball, confirmed talks broke off Monday after it became clear the two sides remain “far apart.”