Contract talks between Vale and United Steelworkers Local 9508, representing 130 workers mine and mill workers at Voisey's Bay fly-in nickel mine in northern Labrador, ended after two days July 20 with no deal. The almost yearlong strike began last Aug. 1.

Vale and the USW will be in front of the Newfoundland and Labrador Labour Relations Board Aug. 30 for a hearing on a bargaining in bad faith complaint the company has brought against the union for “its conduct to date,” including during the most recent round of talks last week.

Earlier this month, also after almost a year on the picket line, striking Steelworkers at Local 6500 in Sudbury and Local 6200 in Port Colborne voted about 75 per cent July 9 to ratify a five-year deal with Brazilian mining giant Vale, four days short of a year of going on strike at those two Ontario sites.

It was the longest strike in Sudbury's history and the longest strike in Vale's 68-year-history. There have been nine strikes at the former Inco operations in Sudbury since 1958, including an 8 ˝-month one from Sept. 15, 1978 until June 7, 1979. It remains the biggest strike in Canadian history in terms of lost workdays.

Vale said in a statement July 20 there has been "little progress towards a new collective agreement" in Voisey's Bay."

"We are very frustrated and extremely disappointed," said Tom Paddon, general manager of Vale's operations in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"To date, the USW has rejected three full settlement proposals tabled by the company over the past 12 months of negotiation," Paddon said. "At the prompting of the conciliation officers, the USW tabled a new counter-proposal that contained no compromise on substantive issues and included financial demands translating into an 8 per cent increase in compensation over their prior proposal. The current USW economic demands would increase labour costs at Vale's operations in Labrador by about 45 per cent over the previous collective agreement.

"We entered this round of talks with the objective of reaching a deal that meets the needs of our employees and our operations in Labrador. Unfortunately, the lack of flexibility being shown by USW at the negotiating table diminishes that possibility," said Paddon.

“Since talks broke off USW has increased the level and volume of misinformation to deflect attention from their unwillingness to engage in meaningful negotiations,” Paddon said in a subsequent statement July 23.

“The USW bargaining team began proceedings by declaring itself unwilling to negotiate any additional outstanding items until Vale agreed to a full-time paid union president position for Voisey's Bay,” Paddon said.

“At the urging of the company and the provincial conciliators, the USW finally submitted a counter-proposal that contained no change in the union’s position on the major outstanding issues and introduced significant new monetary demands. Accepted as is, the union proposal would increase Vale's labour costs by 45 per cent over the previous collective agreement.

“The Local union president has been quoted as saying he 'doesn't understand the company's calculations' and 'all they asked for was an eight per cent pay increase.' What he chooses not to say is that asking for 8 per cent a year over three years (compounded annually) is actually more than a 24 per cent pay increase.

“Other financial demands made by the USW, and not mentioned by the union president, include: an additional 10 per cent increase in base wage for each night spent at the Voisey's Bay site; a cost-of-living allowance (COLA); a nickel bonus; overtime at time-and-a-half after eight hours a day (when employees work a 12-hour shift schedule); and a shift premium of $1.50 an hour for night shift. Both the shift premium and the overtime are new items never before raised by the USW in any prior negotiations over the past 12 months.

“The USW staff representative has been quoted as saying 'the company offered an inferior bonus system based on incentives and refused to discuss other outstanding issues on the table until the union agrees to the new bonus system'. This is completely untrue. There was no bonus proposal tabled during the two days of talks. All that transpired was a preliminary one hour discussion on bonus possibilities which both USW and Vale agreed to do - that ended quickly, along with the talks themselves – when the union adopted a "we want the Sudbury deal" position and refused to engage further, a reversal of its earlier willingness to explore Labrador-specific solutions. At no time was a bonus proposal tabled and at no time were potential bonus options financially evaluated for comparison purposes,” Paddon said.

“The USW leadership has accused Vale of treating its members as "second-class citizens". Again, this has no basis in truth whatsoever. The "nothing less than Sudbury" refrain ignores the fact that employees in Ontario accepted a contract containing a three per cent wage increase (plus COLA) over five years. As far back as January, Vale tabled a settlement offer in Newfoundland and Labrador containing an immediate 10 per cent wage increase for employees during the time they are on site – in recognition of Voisey's Bay's uniqueness as a remote, fly-in, fly-out operation. Employees also receive a Northern allowance and a travel allowance in further recognition of those same unique qualities, said Paddon.

“Since operations began at Voisey's Bay in 2005, the financial arrangements with employees in Labrador have been fundamentally different from those elsewhere in Canada. There are different job classifications and different pension and benefits plans. To suggest that financial arrangements in Labrador should be a photocopy of agreements with USW in Ontario ignores the fact that this has never been the case since operations began. Vale's settlement proposals to date have reflected the unique business needs of Labrador.

“People are welcome to make comparisons as they see fit,” Paddon said, “be it to Sudbury, Brazil, recent steel industry settlements, the public sector, or, perhaps more relevantly, other employers in Newfoundland and Labrador. In every instance they will discover that the company offer is a very good one – with wage increases, pension increases, a good bonus plan, and other improvements to the expired collective agreement.”

"This company appears not to be serious about striking a deal," said Boyd Bussey, United Steelworkers staff representative. "Vale is offering a lesser bonus system than the one given to Sudbury Local 6500 just two weeks ago.

"The proposed bonus system is unacceptable. It's based entirely on incentives rather than the present one based solely on the average realized price of nickel or the profitability of the company. The Sudbury bonus has a nickel component and a world wide company profitability components," said Bussey.

"The company has also refused to discuss other outstanding issues on the table until the union agrees to the new bonus system," emphasized Bussey.

"We need to see a serious effort on Vale's part, if negotiations are to succeed."

"We will continue to move forward with our operations at Voisey's Bay," Paddon said.

No further talks are scheduled.