Vale Inco retraining workers to replace striking colleagues
Move suggests it plans to reopen Sudbury, Ont., smelter
Nickel miner Vale Inco Ltd. is training replacement workers so it can re-open a smelter that has been idle since workers went on strike in July.
The company is training non-striking workers to run the Copper Cliff smelter complex near Sudbury, Ont. But so far, the company remains coy on whether or not it intends to actually reopen the facility.
“Could it be interpreted that we are getting ready to start? Yes,” Vale Inco spokesman Steve Ball said. “Have we made the decision to do so? No, not at this time.”
A total of 3,500 Vale Inco workers — at Vale Inco operations in Sudbury, Port Colborne, Ont., and Voisey’s Bay, N.L. — are on strike. They are represented by Local 6500 of the United Steelworkers union, which argues that getting untrained workers to operate the smelter, which turns unprocessed ore into usable metal, would pose a hazard to workers and the community.
The ongoing labour dispute centres on Vale’s proposal to reduce a bonus tied to the price of nickel. Workers also oppose a plan by the company to exempt new employees from its defined-benefit pension plan, which guarantees employees a reliable, steady income after retirement.
The company is proposing to provide them with a defined-contribution plan, which bases retirement benefits on investment returns.
The strike is the first job action at the company since Vale bought Inco’s assets for $19 billion US in 2006.
