CANADIAN LABOUR:

MANITOBA WORKERS SUPPORT VALE INCO STRIKE:

While steelworkers in Thompson Manitoba are bound by a contract with Vale Inco until September 2011 this doesn't mean that they don't support their fellow workers in Ontario and Newfoundland. Here's a story from the Sudbury Star about the support rallies in Sudbury and Port Colborne where visiting members from Thompson showed their support last Friday. Stay tuned to the Fair Deal Now strike support site for further news about this strike.

CLCLCLCLCLCLCLCL
Thompson Steel supports locals:
Posted By LARA BRADLEY, THE SUDBURY STAR
A low-key rally on the Copper Cliff picket line drew about 60 to 70 strikers Friday.

Murray Nychyporuk, president of the United Steelworkers Local 6166, presented the workers with a banner signed by members of his local from Thompson, Man., as well as a cheque for $15,000.

"The members appreciate you guys taking on this fight," he said "We all want to see you be successful."

Labour Day in Thompson will be focused on the Steelworkers' battle in Ontario, added Nychyporuk.

"It makes for a tough household when the breadwinner's out of work and there is no money coming in. It creates tension. What Vale's doing is attacking middle class Canada in trying to get these concessions," he said.

"It's not a pretty thing."

The Manitoba workers are on shutdown. No strike looms in their immediate future as their contract is not up until September 2011. However, Nychyporuk and another activist from Thompson lent their support to the Steelworkers fight, spending the week in Ontario -- first in Port Colborne picket line and then Sudbury.

The Port Colborne rally on Tuesday drew almost all its 130 members, said local Steelworkers president John Fera.

"Voisey's Bay, Port Colborne and Sudbury went out together, and we're going back together," he said to applause from the line.

In an interview after the rally, Fera talked about the importance of sticking together.

"It's great for our members and the members of the Port and the members in Voisey's Bay to know that nobody's fighting alone. We're not doing this in isolation," he said.

"We're doing this together. For a cause we know is right against a company we know is wrong."

Fera didn't have many details about the rumours that Vale had declared or was close to declaring force majeure. Force majeure is a legal procedure used to excuse the company from its contractual obligations to deliver product due to labour disruptions.

The website MetalBulletin.comis
reporting a declaration of force majeure was made Friday.

"This company is so narrow sighted that they're already running out of stock?" Fera asked.

While the declaration of force majeure wasn't unexpected, the timing of it is, he said.

"We knew at some point they would be running out of stock. But not this early," he said.

"That surprises me a little bit. Disappoints me a little bit."

Fera also spoke at the rally about the new protocol established last week between the Steelworkers Local 6500 and Vale Inco.

"As you were probably aware, Inco tried to sue us for $25 million again. So we went to court last Wednesday," he said. "We were able to successfully mediate a protocol that we are practicing today. We think we did OK."

The protocol gives the Steelworkers the right to delay vehicles 12 to 15 minutes. Vale will now supply the picket lines with water, power, telephone communications and wood.

"Power is one of the things they threatened to cut off just a couple of weeks ago," Fera said.

Pat and Darlene Lacelle were among the members at the rally.

"I think it's my sixth or seventh strike. I started in 1975," he said. (This says something about those who imagine that the old Inco was any better than the present owners-Molly )

"I find this time here it's a little worse. The company's more difficult to deal with. At least with the other company, we had a little bit of respect for each other. But with these guys I don't have any respect for them." (Ah- the rosy glow of memory-Molly )

Lacelle believes that the length of the strike hinges on the market.

"I looked this morning and saw nickel was $8.91. They're losing money. It's costing money for them to be idle," he said.

He was pleased at the contribution made by the Thompson workers.

"Good support from a small local like that. I think it's good. This is a fight for every worker," he said.

A year away from pension, Lacelle voted down the contract because of his son who also works for Vale.

"This is going to be our last fight," said Darlene Lacelle.

CANADIAN LABOUR-SUDBURY:

STRIKERS AND COMMUNITY:

The following letter was recently published in the Sudbury Star. It comes Molly's way via the strike support website Fair Deal Now set up by the Steelworkers to support the strike against Vale Inco.

CLCLCLCLCLCLCL
Steelworkers fight important to all:
Sudbury was built on mining and there is no doubt it is a valuable asset to our community. The economic spinoff for the city has been tremendous; Sudbury has prospered.

There have been difficult times for sure, but Sudbury and mining survived. The strike today between Vale Inco and the Steelworkers is about a different survival. I respect the "hard fight" of the union and am mindful of the tremendous gains and efforts made.

Mining is a dangerous profession and the workers earn every dollar they make.

The proposed Vale Inco pension, transfer rights and nickel bonus changes were reasonable business initiatives and open for discussion between both sides; bargaining in good faith and a deal would be made. There is a sense there was no bargaining of any kind, no real discussion of the issues. Then there is the 200-plus staff/management cuts of highly skilled mining employees, which is suspect.

This fight is much bigger than your typical labour dispute, it is about the survival of our community (mining contractors, service and supply companies), our resources, our people.
When the strike is over, the fear is, who will run and work the mines when all the skilled workers have been let go, what will this company look like and how many workers will die? Make no mistake, that will happen.

We cannot sit by and watch them dismantle our mining assets and what belongs to this city. I do not blame Vale Inco, I blame the government for letting them in. It's about respect.
C. Venturi Azilda

CANADIAN LABOUR-THOMPSON MANITOBA:

THOMPSON STEELWORKERS MOBILIZE SUPPORT FOR VALE INCO STRIKERS:

While members of the United Steel Workers at the Vale Inco operations in Thompson, Manitoba have a contract with the company that is in effect until September 2011 that doesn't mean that they haven't been active in rallying support for their striking brothers and sisters. The following article from the Thompson Citizen tells how the Steelworkers in Thompson are working to rally public support behind their fellow workers. The following came to Molly's attention via the strike support site Fair Deal Now set up by the strikers. Drop by that site to get the latest updates on what is happening in Sudbury, Port Colborne and elsewhere.

CLCLCLCLCLCLCL

Nychyporuk: USW Local 6166 backs Ontario union brothers and sisters at Vale Inco in Sudbury and Port Colborne:
John Barker
By John Barker editor@thompsoncitizen.net

July 22, 2009
Thompson – Murray Nychyporuk, the recently elected president of United Steelworkers Local 6166 representing unionized labour at Vale Inco in Thompson, was at City Centre Mall July 18 to send out a strong message of solidarity with their unionized brothers and sisters on strike at the Brazilian mining giant’s Sudbury and Port Colborne operations in Ontario.

Steelworkers at Vale Inco in Ontario went on strike July 13 (see related story Pages 3 and 9). Workers at Vale Inco’s Voisey’s Bay operations in Labrador are set to strike in 12 days on Aug. 1. In the late 1970s, the Steelworkers waged a lengthy nine-month strike against Inco in Sudbury from Sept. 15, 1978 until June 7, 1979.

More than 4,900 grievances were filed between 2006 and 2009 by Steelworkers in Ontario against Vale Inco under the three-year collective bargaining agreement that recently expired. More than 1,700 of the grievances – 34 per cent – were about contracting out.

USW Local 6166 in Thompson, however, has a binding collective agreement with Vale Inco, signed last September, through Sept. 15, 2011.

The major issues of contention in both Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador surround company-proposed changes to the nickel bonus and a proposal for new hires to be put in a contribution-based pension benefit plan, which would result in two-tiered pensions.

The striking workers in Sudbury and Port Colborne receive $200 per week from the Steelworkers in strike pay.

Under the contract that just expired for Local 6500 in Sudbury and Local 6200 in Port Colborne, the triggering mechanism for the nickel price bonus is tied to Vale Inco’s profitability at the operation, providing nickel is trading above $2.25 per pound. The company has not paid nickel bonuses in 2009, claiming operations in Canada have not been profitable. The average hourly wage in Sudbury is $29 per hour, the Steelworkers say.

The old nickel price bonus did not have a maximum limit. With the proposed contract, the trigger would have been doubled to $5 per pound, and there would be a limit on money earned through the nickel bonus, capping at 75 percent of a total possible 20 per cent bonus of worker's hourly wages. The other 25 per cent of the possible maximum 20 per cent bonus would be made up by an Annual Incentive Plan, which would be measured by how profitable Vale Inco is at the time.

“The company proposal,” Nychyporuk said, for a two- component bonus plan, “is dramatically inferior to the current plan and would strip the workers (in Ontario and Labrador) from the benefits they deserve in good times.”

With a current average wage of $29 per hour, a 20 per cent cap would mean a maximum nickel price bonus payout of an additional $5.80 per hour. Currently there is no cap.

“What impact does this labour dispute (in Ontario) have on us in Northern Manitoba, when we have a binding contract until September 2011?” Nychyporuk asks. “The dark twisting path Vale Inco chose to seek, in the pursuit of concessions in Ontario, puts our workers in a state of troubled unrest. Make no mistake, we too may find ourselves in the very same position. A labour dispute in any community places undue stress and strain on its whole and directly affects the shopkeeper, banker, car salesman and ‘you.’”

Nychyporuk also challenges the notion Val Inco’s Canadian operations have not been profitable. While the company consistently refuses to break out financial figures for operations in Canada by region or any other way, the union said earlier this year Vale Inco claims to have lost $102 million in Thompson during the third and fourth quarters of 2008 – hence no nickel bonus.

“Vale Inco’s Canadian operations are extremely profitable,” Nychyporuk said. “The Ontario operations alone collected $4.1 billion from 2006 to 2008. Vale Inco is persistent on increasing these profits at the expense of their workers. Concessions in pensions, nickel bonus, cost of living allowance (COLA) and seniority rights are just some of the key issues in this labour dispute.”

Labour costs “account for less one-tenth of Vale’s cost,” Nychyporuk said, “and they have already clawed back nickel bonus earnings in Thompson, without releasing a clear explanation to our membership on the floor of their accounting practices versus profitability, which has left our members confused over whether or not they will ever obtain another nickel bonus payment.”

As for Sudbury and Port Colborne, Nychyporuk said, “These concessions (being sought by the company) are an outright attack on the workforce.”

CANADIAN LABOUR-PORT COLBORNE:

REASONS FOR THE VALE INCO STRIKE:

The following article from the Niagara This Week paper comes Molly's way via the Fair Deal Now website, set up by the Vale Inco strikers to present their case about the strike. It tells about one of the main reasons for the strike, the company's plans (plots????) for reducing their pension liabilities.

CLCLCLCLCLCLCL

Inco workers strike to save pension plan:

About 120 Port Colborne steel workers have joined more than 3,000 of their Sudbury counterparts in a strike after rejecting a contract offer from Vale Inco Sunday.

Unionized workers at the company’s nickel mine in Sudbury and its nickel refinery in Port Colborne went on strike Monday when neither side could come to terms on bonuses, pensions and other issues.

“Our beef is not with the company, it’s with the new owners,” said Barry Hendle, a member of the United Steelworkers Union Local 6200, which represents the Port Colborne workers. “They want a lot of concessions from us in the way the pension and bonus system is set up.”

Hendle, an electrician, was one of about 10 workers manning the picket line outside the Vale Inco plant on Nickel Street Tuesday. He said they are getting a lot of support from people in the community, many of whom have relatives or know someone who works or worked at the plant, which has been in operation since the early 1900s.

Port Colborne’s nickel plant has three main operations: precious metals, cobalt refining and nickel processing and packaging.

Wayne Rae, president of USW Local 6200, said the strike affects 115 union members and about 55 to 60 non-unionized employees.

“They want to change our culture here in Canada,” Rae said. “They don’t want longtime people, they don’t want pension liabilities.”

Rae, who has been involved in contract negotiations since April, said the Brazilian-owned company has basically refused to budge from its initial offer.

The contract offer submitted by Vale would deny new employees from the company’s pension plan, which guarantees employees a reliable and steady income after retirement. Instead, the company would provide new workers with a different plan, which bases retirement benefits on profits.

“They’re trying to create a two-tiered pension, creating friction between new workers and old workers,” Rae said.

Vale Inco has said the Sudbury mining operation is not sustainable at current nickel prices. The price of nickel, used to manufacture stainless steel, has plunged from a high of nearly $25 a pound in 2007 to under $7 per pound today due to slumping demand for the metal used in everything from appliances to automobiles.

Rae said 95 per cent of his members rejected the offer in a ratification vote Sunday. Eighty-five per cent of the roughly 3,300 unionized workers at Vale’s Sudbury operations, represented by USW Local 6500, voted to reject the company’s contract offer.

“They want to cap the bonuses. They don’t want to give the cost of living allowance. There’s so many issues on the table, it’s the whole contract,” Rae said.

Employees at Vale’s Labrador operations have also voted to reject a final contract offer from the company, so unless a compromise is reached, the 450 workers at the Voisey’s Bay mine and nickel processing plant are set to strike Aug. 1.

Hendle said the company has a stockpile of nickel, which could signal a long and protracted strike. But he said the workers are resolute.

“We’re in it for the long haul. Some of our guys have already taken part-time jobs,” he said.

CANADIAN LABOUR-SUDBURY/PORT COLBORNE:

USW BEGIN STRIKE AGAINST VALE INCO:

Today workers represented by the United Steel Workers began strike action against Vale Inco at both the mines in Sudbury and the refining plant in Port Colborne, both in Ontario. Vale Inco (see the wikipedia article on this company ) is the Brazilian owned parent company that acquired inco in October 2006. With this acquisition Vale became the second largest mining company in the world. Workers at the Voisey's bay operation in Newfoundland have also taken a strike vote which authorized strike action beginning in early August. Here are the bare bones of the story from the Reuters News Agency.

CLCLCLCLCLCLCL

Strike begins at Vale Inco's Ontario sites
Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:12pm EDT

TORONTO, July 13 (Reuters) - Unionized workers at Vale Inco's nickel mine in Sudbury and its nickel refinery in Port Colborne, both in Ontario, went on strike early on Monday, after rejecting the company's contract offer over the weekend.

"The strike started at midnight and workers were on the picket line just after midnight, both at Sudbury and Port Colborne," said Bob Gallagher, a spokesman for the United Steelworkers union.

The strike won't have any immediate impact on nickel output because Vale had closed the Sudbury mine through the end of July because of low nickel prices.

Negotiations between Vale Inco -- the nickel mining and processing division of Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (VALE5.SA) -- and its Sudbury union broke down as the two sides failed to agree on bonuses, pensions and other issues.

Members of the USW's Local 6500 voted overwhelmingly to reject the company's contract offer on Saturday. The Local represents about 3,300 workers at the Sudbury site in northern Ontario, which is one of the world's largest nickel mines. And about 120 workers of USW's Local 6200, which represents workers at the Port Colborne nickel plant in southern Ontario, rejected the offer on Sunday.

Miners at the Vale's Voisey's Bay nickel-copper operations in Labrador on Canada's East Coast have already voted to authorize a strike, which will likely take effect in early August.

Gallagher said the union was willing to go back to the negotiating table if the company will to come back and talk about possible compromises. Company officials were not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; editing by Peter Galloway)

CLCLCLCLCLCLCL

For many years past Inco facilities, whether in Ontario, Newfoundland or here in Manitoba, have often been the scenes of long and hard fought strikes. While both the union and the managers of Vale (for obviously different reasons) are saying that the strikes will be short term the reality is likely to prove otherwise. While workers in Newfoundland will likely join their compatriots in early August those at Thompson, Manitoba are bound by a contract that will not expire until 2011. No doubt the strike would be more effective if it was nationwide, but barring that there are surely other actions (work to rule ???) that Inco workers elsewhere could undertake to support their fellows on strike. It should also be noted that the United Steel Workers have signed agreements with other unions representing miners in countries where Vale operates calling for global cooperation.

In the meantime the Ontario workers have launched a website (Fair Deal Now) to give the union point of view on the strike. Here's the announcement from the website of the United Steel Workers.

CLCLCLCLCLCLCL
Inco Strikers Launch Action Website: “FairDealNow.ca”:
13 JULY 2009 – Facing a final offer that demands long-term dramatic cuts, USW workers overwhelmingly reject the concessions from a company that made over $13 billion US last year.

Workers Launch an Action Website (http://www.fairdealnow.ca/ as they begin strike at Vale Inco.

After months of negotiations, the Vale Inco position demanding major long-term concessions to pensions, the nickel bonus and seniority has not changed “one iota”.

Faced with a final offer that demanded dramatic long-term changes and cuts to the collective agreement, USW members voted overwhelming to reject the demands.

In votes of 85%, 97% and 99%, USW workers in Sudbury, Port Colborne and Voisey’s Bay voted down the company’s final offer.

“Vale made over $13 billion US last year, and currently has over $22 billion US cash assets on hand, but is using the economic environment to take away new workers’ pensions and slash profit-sharing in good times -- our members deserve better,” said John Fera, President of USW local 6500.

As of 12:01am, July 13th, USW workers at Vale Inco are on strike.

Show your support, follow the developments and receive “breaking news” updates by visiting their new action website, details below.
->->Visit the Vale Inco strikers’ wonderful new action website at http://www.fairdealnow.ca/. ->->View the news releases and coverage concerning Vale Inco.

CLCLCLCLCLCLCL

As the photo above shows workers in Sudbury began their strike action by a graphic "showing of the Canadian flag". This is both quite apt and only potentially ironic. The Brazilian owners of Vale, of course, care as little for the well being of workers in Canada (or other countries where they operate such as Indonesia, New Caledonia and Kanaky) as they do for their workers in Barzil. What seems ironic is the idea of Canadians protesting against "Brazilian imperialism", but in our new world of globalization the idea that a company is "headquartered" in a presumably poor country is meaningless. The international ruling class of managers is just that - international. They operate wherever profit is to be made, and the old ideas of "imperialism" connected to this or that country are becoming increasingly antiquated.

Still, the appeal to both nationalism and, much more importantly "localism" is and will be a major driving force behind resistance to the transnationals, whatever their country of origin. What follows below is a 'Letter to the Community' from the workers in Sudbury and Port Colborne. What they make plain is how the fight of the Vale Inco workers is also a fight for the communities involved. Whatever the official union beliefs and hopes in a "low stockpile" of nickel this strike will be long and hard fought. The wider it is and the wider the net of soliodarity that it casts the more likely it is to be successful. This means the involvement of the local communities. It will also hopefully mean, should the strike become bitter enough, the advancement of ideas beyond simple collective bargaining. Can the workplaces be occupied ? Is there another model for how to run the mines, perhaps one where Vale Inco is displaced and the enterprises are managed by a cooperative with representation from the local communities, the Canadian taxpayer and the workers themselves ? This is hardly impossible. In the USA General Motors has essentially been nationalized (without the democratic control of local communitioes and the workers themselves). If Vale wants to claim "poverty" then maybe this option should be on the table. Even if it doesn't come to fulfillment it will, like hanging, do wonders to concentrate the minds of management.

Anyways, from the Fair Deal Now website...

CLCLCLCLCLCLCL

Letter to the Community:
Dear members of the community,
The workers at Vale-Inco have done everything we could to avoid a strike.

We know how hard this will be on our members and on our communities. Equally, we also know how hard it would be on our members and their communities if we had accepted the company’s demands for dramatic long-term restructuring and cuts to how we are compensated.

This round of bargaining has been nothing like the past negotiations with Inco. Vale, the new owner who currently is a massively profitable multinational from Brazil, has chosen to use the current economic conditions as simply an excuse to extract deep long-term cuts with little regard for maintaining the family incomes that sustain our communities.

The fact is that in the past two years, Vale has extracted twice as much profit from Ontario, as Inco had in the previous 10 years.

We understand these are very difficult economic times, and we let this fact guide us during the entire negotiating process. However, Vale’s focus has not been on trying to find ways to get through these difficult times. (Given they have $22 Billion US of cash assets on hand, you can see why they are not as concerned about this issue as we thought they would be.)

Rather, their main focus has been on dramatically reducing a benefit that does not pay a single cent now (or in any economic hard time).

The nickel bonus is an innovative mechanism developed by Inco and USW to allow workers to partially benefit in good times and to help protect the company in bad times. The fact that Vale is attacking this benefit (that currently pays nothing) shows they are not motivated by the current economic situation.

Vale would rather use this moment to attack a fair mechanism knowing that good times will eventually return.

At the same time, it appears Vale is quite willing to give its senior executives a share of the profits now. Total compensation to the top six Vale executives increased by 120% in the last two years (from 2006 to 2008). (It should also be noted that in 2008 Vale has a revenue of US $ 38.5 billion and a net income of US $ 13.2 billion. Most companies would envy such profitability-Molly )

Still Vale insists they need to radically impose these concessions from their Canadian workers.
We believe that every person who lives or works in the communities of Sudbury, Port Colborne and Voisey’s Bay should recognize that the health and viability of their community is being threatened.

The question is not whether Vale Inco can survive this economic recession. Their profits answer that question. The real question is whether our communities will have the crucial middle-class family incomes when we eventually come out of this recession.

For Canada, the question is whether our natural resources, and the hard and dangerous jobs involved in their extraction, can provide the reliable and hardworking families a middle-class compensation.

For foreign companies to extract those Canadian resources and reap such substantial profits, but not provide our families and communities with hard-working secure incomes is just not right.
We ask for, and appreciate, your support.

Respectfully,
USW locals 6500, 6200 and 6480