ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – An industrial inquiry called to help end the 17-months strike at the Voisey’s Bay nickel mine in Labrador recommends a four-year agreement with wage hikes for workers.
Former premier Danny Williams set up the inquiry to help settle the dispute between the United Steelworkers and mining giant Vale of Brazil.
A spokesman for the union has said it will recommend workers accept terms backed by the inquiry report.
Workers in Voisey’s Bay have been on strike since Aug. 1, 2009. Sticking points in negotiations have included wages, benefits and the expiry date for any contract.
Talks broke off again Thursday just a day after they had resumed for the first time since October.
Both the union and the company received copies of the report by the industrial inquiry commission late last year. It slams both sides for acting in ways that have prolonged the dispute while workers walked the picket lines.
It recommends a four-year deal with wage increases and other bonuses on which both sides have generally agreed. Other items should be negotiated or put to binding arbitration, the report suggests.
The deal would extend from ratification until Dec. 31, 2014.
Contract expiry for workers in Labrador should not align with Vale’s Ontario operations, says the inquiry report led by commission chairman John Roil.
"The commission is satisfied that allowing this contract to be tied in duration with collective agreements in other Vale operations in Canada is not a beneficial collective bargaining objective."
The report also concludes that Vale has displayed behaviour that "demonstrates disrespect for the role of a bargaining agent. It is not surprising that this has contributed to a continued failure in these negotiations.
"It is difficult to comprehend that any union, especially a strong national entity such as (United Steelworkers), would be intimidated by such an approach."
The Steelworkers, meanwhile, are criticized in the report for targeting objectives "that reach beyond this particular collective agreement."
That barb was aimed at the union’s failed attempts to align the Voisey’s Bay contract expiry with Vale’s operations in Ontario.
"A union must always ask itself: when have the local employees endured enough sacrifice for the objectives in a national struggle?"
Vale settled a year-long strike with Ontario workers in Sudbury and Port Colborne last year. That agreement offered raises and signing bonuses to more than 3,000 workers who agreed to accept a defined-contribution pension plan instead of the existing defined-benefit plan.
On Thursday, a Vale spokesman accused the Steelworkers of "combative behaviour" in the Voisey’s Bay talks.
Tom Paddon, general manager of Vale’s operations in Newfoundland and Labrador, said the union is fixated on making sure the expiry timing of a new contract at Voisey’s Bay aligns with the next potential strike in Sudbury.
"We are not going to have our people and our business go through a prolonged strike all over again and we will not agree to the union’s proposed expiry date," he said in a statement.
Paddon said Vale had already offered a five-year contract that matched the union’s request to the Industrial Inquiry Commission. He said it includes a promised "wage increase greater than (the union’s) proposal to the commission and that recommended by the commission."
"Yet (the union) flatly rejected this offer."
Steelworkers spokesman Boyd Bussey said late Thursday that the company "didn’t offer us anything of interest.
"We’re going to be suggesting we accept that recommended settlement" from the inquiry commission, he said.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.