Thompson said “yes.” Sudbury and Port Colborne said “no.”
Either way, the contract in question was radically different at the Vale Inco operations, according to Bob Gallagher, head of communications at United Steelworkers Canada.
“There's quite a few differences between the two (contracts),”Gallagher said.
The first contract went through on Sept. 15, 2008, roughly nine months ago, when members of the United Steelworkers Local 6166, located in Thompson, Manitoba, voted to ratify a three-year collective bargaining agreement with Vale Inco.
Vale employees at the company's Thompson operations, totaling roughly 1,300, voted 65.5 per cent in favour of the contract.
The second contract was tabled this week for United Steelworkers Local 6200 and 6500, located in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, and resulted in workers taking their fight to picket lines across Ontario.
With their contract, Thompson employees received an increase on their pension, a steady increase in wages consistent with their last contract, as well as recruitment changes towards skilled trades people.
Vale Inco's contract offer for Local 6200 and 6500 members has been criticized by the union for attempting to bring in a new pension plan for people hired after the contract agreement, lowering student wages to 70 per cent of full-time employee pay, and cutting down on potential nickel bonus for workers.
“The areas of dispute which were all the items where Vale Inco wants to reduce benefits and take away things (from Local 6200 and 6500), are not in the Thompson contract,” Gallagher said.
“The two-tier pension, the nickel bonus (proposed changes), both of those are take aways and they're not in the Thompson agreement, as I understand it.”
Under the contract that expired for Local 6200 and 6500 members on July 13 at midnight, nickel bonus did not have a maximum limit and had a trigger of nickel prices being above $2.50 per pound.
With the proposed contract, the trigger would have been upped to $5, and there would be a limit on money earned through 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, essentially.
“We're actually very surprised that Vale Inco is concentrating and centering their demands on the nickel bonus,” Gallagher said. “We understand that we are in economic hard times, we came to the table with a proposal to have no increases in terms of our wage, salary and benefits. And the nickel bonus currently pays zero dollars. It pays absolutely nothing. And it will, in fact, pay nothing whenever there are hard times and the company is making relatively small profits. That's how the nickel bonus is set up.
“When the company is making dramatic profits, the workers get a share of the benefits in those dramatic profits. And there have been times where the price of nickel goes up so high that there are dramatic profits and therefore the workers should get some share of it.”
The nickel bonus will have “no effect on there ability to get by recessions or hard times,” he said. “We're a bit perplexed by the fact that what they want to do is make structural changes for the future when the times are good and they are extremely profitable. Rather than some of the things you would think they would go after which would help them try to weather the storm. They're going after things that are not really about the recession and hard times.
“We're not willing to use hard times as an excuse to take away what we should get when there are good times.”
Roughly 2,600 of the union's 3,100 local 6500 members in Sudbury voted 85 per cent in favour of the strike.
“I voted for the strike,” said David Zlahtic, a Vale Inco machinist in the divisional shops. “There is nothing in the contract for us. There is nothing but concessions.”
Zlahtic, who's been with the company for six and a half years, said he was also uneasy about the new pension plan.
“The defined benefit and defined contribution components are very different retirement arrangements,” a Vale Inco release stated on July 9, while union members were voting.
“I am not entirely opposed to it but I find it is not clearly defined,” he said. “It is too vague the way it was presented to us. There are not enough details if you look at it clearly.”
“As far as we're concerned (the defined benefit pension plan) is an element which should stay,” Gallagher said. “It's one we've earned over the years. The proposal is to not have that pension available to new employees. The defined benefits plan that we currently have is superior to the one they are offering and they're also suggesting (through the proposed benefits) that the workforce should be treated differently, between young workers and older workers. We think they should all be treated the same.”
Local 6200 workers in Port Colborne also voted in favour of striking, at 95 per cent, with a 97 per cent turnout for eligible voters, according to reports.
“This rejection is just further proof that the offer has concessions that the members are not willing to accept,” said Local 6200 president Wayne Rae in a release.
Not only are the Thompson contract and the one proposed to Local 6200 and 6500, radically different, but the negotiation process was different as well, Gallagher said.
“Both the content of the contracts and in terms of negotiations, they are extremely different,” he said. “The negotiations in Thompson did not have the demands for long-term cuts that these negotiations had from the absolute, very beginning.”
Vale Inco would not comment on any items in the contract, such as nickel bonus, or on how negotiations were carried out.
Steve Ball, a public affairs official with the company declined further comment stating Vale Inco has already said what they plan to communicate to the media.
“Until the union accepts the fact that changes are required for our business to be competitive and self-sustaining in all price cycles, there will be little to talk about,” Ball said, in an earlier interview with the Northern Life.
He also said “We will not be providing daily updates, respectively,” referring to media coverage on the ongoing strike.
