Feb 24, 2010- 4:40 PM
Province should ‘demand’ company’s return to bargaining table, professor says
In David Leadbeater’s opinion, if any government has the power to put an end to the more than seven-month-long labour dispute between Vale Inco and Steelworkers Local 6500, it’s the province.
“This is happening under provincial jurisdiction,” Leadbeater, an associate professor of economics at Laurentian University, said. “I think our provincial cabinet and our (provincial) members have to demand that Vale Inco come back to the bargaining table without preconditions.”
“I think that in the end, if the company refuses, the government has to start raising bigger questions about the possibilities of intervening more directly with laws.”
In the long-term, Leadbeater has more radical plans; he said he’d like to see government ownership or joint public-private ownership of natural resources, such as mines, so that the benefits of the resources go to citizens, not private corporations.
Leadbeater is the editor of a 2008 book of essays by community members called Mining Town Crisis: Globalization, Labour and Resistance in Sudbury, about how globalization has impacted the community.
So far, the province’s response to the Vale Inco strike has been “pathetic,” he said.
(Political leaders) basically agree with what the mining companies are doing. They think this is the way to have development.
David Leadbeater,
associate professor of economics, Laurentian University
“They basically agree with what the mining companies are doing. They think this is the way to have development. They think that communities and working people are a secondary consideration,” Leadbeater said.
“This has to be challenged. They have to take a position that’s more based on democratic needs of communities, of unions and the majority of the population. I don’t think it will happen, though, without a lot of protest.”
In regard to the federal government, Leadbeater said he doesn’t have much hope that they will do anything about the strike, because their view is “resources should be run and controlled by multinational corporations without much challenge.”
Leadbeater said Sudbury’s mayor and council could be doing more to make life difficult for Vale Inco, including opposing the attempt to bring replacement workers to the community and enforcing bylaws that would make production harder during the strike.
When Inco was taken over by Brazilian-owned Vale, and Falconbridge by Swiss-owned Xstrata in 2006, very little was said by the federal, provincial and municipal governments, ensuring the “continued domination” of the community by multinational corporations, Leadbeater said.
When a request was put in for an interview with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, his press secretary, Jane Almeida, sent a transcript of remarks the premier made Feb. 11 about the subject by e-mail instead.
“Anything that we could do that would bring the sides together and resolve this amicably, we stand at the ready to do,” the premier’s statement reads.
“It’s obviously a very difficult situation. It’s been shut down for some time now, it’s compromising the lives of all those people who are directly affected. It also has an impact on the broader Sudbury economy.
“But as we’ve said to both sides for some time now, if there is anything at all we might do to help resolve this, we’d be more than pleased to do so.”
Tom Zach, a spokesperson for provincial Minister of Labour Peter Fonseca, turned down Northern Life’s request for an interview with the minister. He said the strike is an issue between the employer and union, and Fonseca needs to maintain his neutrality.
Fonseca did speak about the the strike in response to a question posed by New Democrat Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas in the legislature Feb. 16.
“Our mediation team at the Ministry of Labour is working 24/7 to get the parties to the table, to assist them in this bargaining process,” he said in the legislature.
“I do understand how frustrating and difficult it is. Minister (of Correctional Services and Community Safety, and Sudbury MPP Rick) Bartolucci has shared with me the stories of the hard-working miners, the work that they do and the impact they have on the community.”
Zach clarified Fonseca’s statements in the legislature, saying that when Fonseca said the mediation team was “working 24/7 to get the parties back to the table,” he meant the mediation team was available to assist the union and the company with bargaining at any time.
In a recent interview with Northern Life about the strike, Bartolucci reiterated statements made by McGuinty and Fonseca, saying he’s been trying to convince both Vale Inco and the Steelworkers to use the services of a provincial mediator.
Bartolucci said he has remained neutral throughout the strike because he feels it’s in the best interests of the community to have “open access to both the union and the company.
“Anyone who would suggest that the government has the power to force two entities in a private sector dispute back to the table is really, really being disingenuous,” he said.
Bartolucci said he’s also prevented from taking sides in a private sector labour dispute by the Members’ Integrity Act, which came into effect in the 1990s.
The integrity act governs the conduct of MPPs — and especially cabinet ministers — with regard to interfering and taking sides in labour disputes, he said.
When asked what he thinks of Vale Inco’s plans to use replacement workers to restart production during the strike, Bartolucci said he thinks the strike has gone on “seven months too long,” and he encourages both sides to re-start negotiations.
Bartolucci’s spokesperson, Laura Blondeau, later e-mailed Northern Life with a clarification about the subject, which stated that “Rick has never and will never support the use of replacement workers.”
Bartolucci was the Minister of Northern Development and Mines in 2006 during the takeovers of Sudbury’s major mining companies. At the time, he remained neutral about the takeover.
“We had no choice. This was a negotiation between the federal government and foreign ownership. We could not be biased in one way or another. That’s the reality, that’s the rule.”
When asked if foreign ownership of natural resources is good for communities, Bartolucci said “the reality is we are in a global economy, and this is the way business is done now.”
Gélinas, who has taken a pro-union stance, said she has tried many avenues to get Vale Inco and Local 6500 back to the bargaining table.
She said she has spoken to union representatives and company representatives on a regular basis, travelled to Brazil with the Steelworkers to speak to Brazilian government representatives about the strike, and sent numerous letters to the premier and to provincial ministers about the issues surrounding the strike.
Gélinas said she has been told the Brazilian government wants a good working relationship with Canada and is nervous that their country is portrayed badly in Canada because of Vale’s actions.
However, Vale is partly owned by the Brazilian government, Gélinas said. She said she hopes the Brazilian government can exert some influence over Vale’s actions in Canada.
“A clear message from Mr. Harper and Mr. McGuinty as simple as they are not happy with what’s going on in Sudbury would go a long, long way towards putting pressure on Vale.”
On Feb. 12, federal NDP leader Jack Layton, along with Sudbury MP Glenn Thibeault and Nickel Belt MP Claude Gravelle, sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, urging him to direct Minister of Labour Lisa Raitt “to immediately engage in dialogue with Vale Inco and USW, with the aim of bringing both sides back to the negotiating table.”
Gravelle, a retired Steelworker who worked for Inco for 34 years, said the foreign ownership of Vale Inco has prolonged the strike.
“Before 2006, the company’s head office was in Toronto, and the Steelworkers could negotiate with people from the community,” Gravelle said. “What’s happening now is they’re negotiating through lawyers in Toronto who have absolutely no interest in settling this strike, because the longer it lasts, the more money they make. They’re not part of this community, and neither are the Brazilian shareholders or (Vale Inco CEO) Tito Martins.”
Gravelle said while he admits Raitt and Harper have no real power to get the Steelworkers and Vale Inco back to the negotiating table, “they have the power of suggestion. They have to show leadership.”
Northern Life also put in a call to federal Industry Minister Tony Clement to speak about what politicians could do to put an end to the Vale Inco strike, and about the takeovers of Sudbury’s major mining companies in 2006.
A spokesperson for Clement, Lynn Meahan, denied Northern Life’s request to speak to Clement about the strike, saying it is a provincial labour issue.
She said Clement may be able to speak to Northern Life about the mergers if his scheduled allowed. However, Clement had not yet phoned at press time.
Sudbury Mayor John Rodriguez spoke about the issues surrounding the strike at a Feb. 5 press conference held by Local 6500.
Rodriguez, who said he remains neutral in the dispute, said he wants to return the community to a state of harmony.
He said he considers both the Steelworkers and Vale Inco as part of the community, adding that Vale Inco was welcomed as a corporate citizen when it bought Inco in 2006.
Rodriguez said both Vale Inco and the Steelworkers should focus their efforts on getting back to the bargaining table instead of doing things to aggravate the other side.
“All of the energies that are being expended in the community right now, if we were to focus that on getting back to the table, and putting our energies into discussing, negotiating and resolving the dispute, it wouldn’t take long, would it?” he said.
“I am throwing down the gauntlet to both sides today. You’ve got to get back to the table.”
