Talks between the United Steelworkers in Voisey’s Bay and Vale Inco aimed at finding common ground have failed, according to radio station VOCM.

The station says Steelworkers spokesman Boyd Bussey claimed the union offered to modify its monetary proposals to kick start talks, but the company insisted on concessions to the nickel bonus to restart discussions.

The station quotes Bussey as saying the government-appointed conciliators adjourned the meetings.

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240 City of Kitchener workers could be walking the picket line as early as tomorrow morning.  The outside and fleet workers – members of CUPE Local 68 – will be in a legal strike position at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

Their duties include everything from maintenance of city arenas, including the Aud., to roads and sewers.

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Major League Soccer players voted to strike if a new labor contract isn’t agreed to before the first season opener on March 25.

The league’s first collective bargaining agreement, a five-year deal, originally was set to run out Jan. 31 but was extended twice while negotiations continued. It expired Feb. 25 after the MLS Players Union refused another extension.

“Recent comments from players simply reflect the fact that the players are unified and, per the results of our strike vote, will not begin the new season if a new agreement with the league is not reached,” union executive director Bob Foose said in a statement Thursday.

The union did not detail the strike authorization vote.

Negotiators for management and players met Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, D.C., in talks convened by George H. Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Earlier Thursday, Toronto defender Nick Garcia was quoted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. as saying: “We’re anticipating not having the season starting. … As of now, for us, we’re very far apart, even with the mediator there in D.C.”

Unhappy with the single-entity structure that has seen the league negotiate all contracts since play began in 1996, players want greater free-agent rights and a higher percentage of guaranteed deals.

Player income averaged $147,945 at the start of last season, according to the union. But the median — the point at which an equal amount make above and below — was $88,000 for 323 players listed.

“We have an understanding with the union and the mediator that we will not publicly discuss what takes place during these bargaining sessions, so we were disappointed when we saw comment from a number of players that both characterized the status of the negotiations and discussed the possibility of a strike,” MLS president Mark Abbott said before Foose’s announcement.

“The meetings this week were productive and we scheduled a number of additional meetings,” Abbott said. “The players’ comments do not accurately reflect the proposals that we’ve made to address their concerns or the productive nature of the discussions we’ve had between MLS and the union.”

MLS declined comment after Foote’s statement, league spokesman Dan Courtemanche said.

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BOWMANVILLE, Ont. — Dozens of workers set up picket lines outside the St. Marys Cement plant in this eastern Ontario town on Sunday over proposed changes to their pension plan.

The walkout follows two months of intensive negotiations between the Canadian Auto Workers and the Toronto-based company.

Currently, the workers have a defined-benefit plan, meaning the amount of their pensions is fixed.

Similar plans across Canada have found themselves deeply in the red in recent years, mostly due to low interest rates, leaving companies which sponsor the plans scrambling to make up the shortfall.

CAW national representative Keith Osborne said the company wants to change the plan structure to a defined-contribution plan, which could mean lower benefits on retirement.

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On March 22, Steelworkers Local 6500 will be holding a “massive rally to show the solidarity and support that our local has from our members, our community, our province and from around the world.”

The event starts at 4:30 p.m. at the union’s hall at 66 Brady St., according to an invitation to the event sent out on Facebook.

Thirty delegates from around the world will be attending the event.

“We are looking for community members, organizations, clubs, unions, political groups and community businesses to attend in large numbers and bring your banners, your flags and your signs,” the invitation said.

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Talks between Vale Inco and United Steelworkers reached an impasse on Sunday before 4 p.m. after about 10 days of discussions were called off by mediator Kevin Burkett.

Both parties sent out news releases expressing disappointment at not reaching a deal.

“We offered a five-year proposal … that addressed wages, pensions and reducing the trigger price on the nickel price bonus,” said Vale Inco spokesman Steve Ball. “It was not accepted as something that the Steelworkers were prepared to agree to.

“We are very disappointed that it has ended this way at this time,” he said.

About 3,000 members of Steelworkers Local 6500 in Sudbury, as well as Local 6200 members at the company’s operations in Port Colborne, have been on strike since July 13, 2009.

Steelworkers Local 6500 president John Fera and the union’s District 6 director, Wayne Fraser, could not be reached for comment on Sunday night.

In a press release, Fraser said the union “presented several new proposals and made genuine, significant compromises on the key issues.

“This was an all-out effort by our committee to reach a settlement, with the best interests of our members, our community and the company in mind,” Fraser said.

“Our committee is frustrated and angry that Vale Inco was not prepared to bring the same spirit of compromise to the table to resolve this labour dispute.”

“Vale did not come close to reciprocating on the many and substantial changes made by the union,” Fraser stated in the press release.

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Eight months after 3,200 mine, mill and smelter workers in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, struck against Vale Inco’s across-the-board concessionary demands, company and United Steelworkers (USW) officials met with a labour mediator this week. Meanwhile, the Sudbury Star has reported that Vale will begin negotiations with 450 nickel and cobalt miners at its Voisey’s Bay, Labrador, operations March 15. The Voisey’s Bay workers have been on the picket line since August.

Vale Inco is demanding a three-year wage freeze, the scrapping of the defined benefit pension program for new hires, the dilution of seniority rights, and the curtailment of a compensation program that ties bonus payments to the price of nickel. This “nickel bonus” was negotiated by the USW in the 1980s in return for surrendering annual wage increases. Under its terms, when nickel prices are high, miners share in the increased profits. During down years in the notoriously cyclical minerals market, no bonuses are earned. Vale has demanded that the threshold for nickel bonus payments be raised to near impossible price targets.

Headquartered in Brazil, Vale S.A. is the second largest mining company in the world. Vertically integrated, it owns its own transportation networks, ports and processing plants across the planet. Its mines and smelters can be found in Europe, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Indonesia, Guatemala, Mongolia, Congo, Guinea, Angola, Australia, New Caledonia, Mozambique and Namibia.

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Outstanding issues include wages, hours of work, sick leave, pensions, shift premiums and LTD benefits.

Halifax (5 March 2010) – Members of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU/NUPGE) who are employed in the union’s laundry services bargaining unit (Local 24) by Crothall Services Canada have voted 93% in favour of striking if necessary to reach a fair contract settlement.

The union says several key issues remain unresolved including wages, guaranteed hours of work, improved sick leave entitlement, establishing a pension plan, shift and weekend
premiums and better cost sharing of benefits and long-term disability (LTD) benefits.

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Frustrated former workers took over a central Newfoundland newsprint mill in Thursday, in a bid to win jobs as security guards.

AbitibiBowater shut down its mill in Grand Falls-Windsor last year, ending a century of newsprint production in the community and putting hundreds out of work.

On Thursday, about a dozen men snuck through a giant wire fence and into the mill.

“These people behind me are workers who worked here all their lives and they don’t see it as trespass,” said Gary Healey, a Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union official, who spoke to CBC News through the wire fence on their behalf.

“They see it as successorship and jurisdiction, and [that they] have a right to work.”

The former workers’ complaint is with the Newfoundland and Labrador government, which took control of AbitibiBowater’s assets when the mill closed.

The men are demanding that the government hire them for any work that involves the mill, including a handful of security positions. None of the people hired at the facility now is a former mill worker.

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