31 January, 2011
A tentative labour agreement reached 26 January will likely be ratified late tonight, ending the 18-month strike between Brazilian multinational Vale and United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9508 in the Canadian province of Newfoundland/Labrador. The union is conducting the last of six explanation and ratification votes to members on the north coast of Labrador today, and by all indications the 124-member Local 9508 will approve a five-year labour agreement with Vale.
The expected approval ends a bitter strike in which Vale – purchaser in 2006 of all mining assets of Canadian-based Inco – sought to roll back living conditions and work terms for 3,500 steelworkers in Voiseys Bay/Goose Bay, Labrador, and in Ontario.
The Eastern Canadian tentative agreement last week came following intense pressure placed on Vale from a special provincial Industrial Inquiry Commission. That independent inquiry issued recommended solutions to end the strike early in January. (see recent ICEM report here.) The settlement, if approved tonight, comes just weeks before that same panel is scheduled to issue a second report on the integrity of Vale’s operations in Labrador.
The company has been operating nickel, copper, and cobalt mining and processing operations with scab replacement workers. On 22 January, a leak from a retention pond in Voiseys Bay went undetected for eight hours, causing a processing plant there to stop production for nearly five days.
On the last day of that shut-down, Vale managers called Local 9508’s bargaining committee into talks and the two sides and with the aid of mediator Bill Wells struck a compromise deal.
The new contract would begin tomorrow, 1 February, and run until 1 February 2016. A back-to-work protocol was also adopted in which all striking workers will be recalled to their jobs within a maximum of seven weeks. Workers returning will receive an immediate C$2,000 retention bonus and another such C$2,000 bonus after completing seven days of work orientation and training.
USW Local 9508 achieved adequate wage increases, retained cost-of-living increases, and won excellent language regarding contracting-out practices. A compromise was made on a production bonus, the so-called nickel bonus. Although still achievable, several Vale-demanded components were added such as cash flow return on site investment and overall operational efficiency that are generally out of workers’ hands.
USW Local 9508 President Darren Cove
A C$.20-per-hour wage increase is gained in each year of the agreement, and workers’ starting wages, following return to work, will be lifted with the first increase plus accrued cost-of-living adjustments from 2009 and 2010. Future cost-of-living increases will be accrued quarterly and paid out on a yearly basis.
Local 9508 won a extra’s holiday, bringing from 11 to 12 the number of statutory holidays; staff working night shifts will receive a first-ever C$.30-per-hour shift differential; and a 10% work-site premium for work performed in remote areas will be added to salaries.
The union’s contracting-out language was expanded positively to prevent Vale from using outside contractors for the purpose of reducing full-time staff.
The expected end of the 18-month strike today will likely mean settlements in the next few weeks of strikes by USW Local 9508 members at three contract companies on Vale’s Labrador/Newfoundland properties. Those contractors represent security, catering, and a First Nation skilled-mechanics company called Ushitou Maintenance. Nearly 300 union members of Local 9508 have been on strike at those firms since mid-2010.
The ICEM and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), Geneva-based Global Union Federations that have supported Canadian steelworkers in the long-running Vale disputes in Newfoundland/Labrador and Ontario, congratulate the members of Local 9508 for their resilience, as well as USW District Six in Canada for exemplary worker representation in facing off with an extremely adversarial mining house.