Vale Inco strike in Sudbury passes 6-month mark

The half-year-old strike by unionized workers at Vale Inco’s Sudbury mining and smelting operations is seeing some movement, with Vale planning to restart limited operations at the Sudbury smelter in late January, using non-striking staff to smelt stockpiled ore.

The restart come at a time of strongly recovering steel and iron ore markets, and somewhat improving nickel markets.

Some 3,500 Vale Inco workers have been on strike in Sudbury since July 13. Unionized workers at Vale Inco’s Port Colborne refinery on the Niagara peninsula and at the Voisey’s Bay nickel mine in Labrador are similarly on strike.

The workers’ inevitable strike fatigue combined with Vale Inco’s refinery in Clydach, Wales, operating well below capacity and its customers becoming increasingly motivated to seek out alternative sources of nickel mean the two parties have growing incentives to come to a new collective bargaining agreement in the months ahead.

The biggest sticking points are still the proposed changes to the pension system, nickel bonuses tied to the price of nickel, and employee job-transfer rights.

However, the United Steelworkers — which represents the striking workers — has just filed a “bad-faith bargaining complaint” against Vale Inco at the Ontario Labour Relations Board, and roughly 1,000 pro-union folk gathered in downtown Sudbury on Jan. 13 to mark six months of strike action and rally support for their bargaining position.