The longest strike in the history of bruising labour conflict in the rich Sudbury mining region has ended after almost a year.

The United Steelworkers confirmed Thursday night that 3,100 striking members at Vale SA’s sprawling operations in the northern Ontario city and a small refinery in Port Colborne had voted about 75.5 per cent for a five-year contract containing wage improvements and some concessions.

Picket lines will come down during the next week as the Brazil-based mining giant starts a recall of many unhappy workers and a long process of rebuilding labour relations to improve productivity.

“We never got everything we wanted but taking a stand and fighting made a difference,” said Wayne Fraser, the union’s Ontario and Atlantic director. “It was necessary because if you choose to roll over, you are sure to lose. It is historic what happened here. It made change.”

Vale vice-president John Pollesel said the company looks forward to a return by workers after “a long, hard year for everyone.”

“It’s now time to come together and focus on building the strong and sustainable operations that Sudbury and Port Colborne require,” he said in a statement.

The strike became a classic labour-management struggle where Vale used its economic power as one of the world’s biggest mining companies to push for cost cuts against the Steelworkers in a union stronghold.

Vale hired replacement workers to continue operations, fired employees for alleged misconduct, sued the union and spent millions of dollars on extra security.

The strike, which started last July 13, marked the first time the company’s mines and other operations resumed partial production during a strike in more than 50 years that the union had represented workers. It left a lasting impression with them that labour relations had changed, and the strike would be long and hard.

The strike marked the ninth walkout at the former Inco operations since 1958 including an 8 ½-month walkout by more than 11,000 workers in 1978-79. That was the biggest strike in Canadian history in terms of worker-lost days.

Labour watchers say the outcome may prompt other multinational companies in Canada to take similar tough stances against unions to drive down costs and increase profits as global competition increases.

Vale officials have acknowledged the company, which lost hundreds of millions of dollars in output, faces a lot of work in winning the trust and support of workers to boost productivity as costs rise in mining the region’s ore reserves of nickel, copper, silver gold and other minerals.

Vale and the union finally reached agreement on all terms last month, but the deal stalled for several days on the issue of dealing with the fate of 12 fired workers. A provincial labour board will start hearing arguments to settle the lingering dispute on Friday.

Fraser, a former Inco worker, called negotiations with the company “horrifying” during the last year.

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The month of May has been designated by United Steelworkers Local 6500 in Canada as “anti-scab” month, a reference to the strikebreakers that the Brazilian mining company Vale is using in efforts to break a ten-month strike in the provinces of Ontario and Labrador/Newfoundland.

Some 200 steelworkers and other supporters rallied in Queen’s Park, Toronto, on 29 April to support introduction of legislation in the Ontario Parliament that would outlaw the use of striker replacements during economic strikes or lockouts. Many of the steelworkers arrived after long bus rides from Sudbury, Ontario, where they experience first-hand the family hardships and community strife brought on by the bargaining intransigence of a company content to use scabs to regain partial production.

On 29 April, the Private Member’s Bill that again would prohibit companies operating in Ontario from using scabs passed a first reading in Parliament by a 32-3 vote. The bill was introduced by New Democratic Party legislators France Gelinas and Peter Kormos.

Somewhat surprisingly, 21 members of the ruling Liberal Party joined with eight New Democrats and three Progressive Conservatives to pass this first reading. The bill must proceed through two more hearings before becoming law, and that could happen by year’s end. In Canada, most labour code is enacted at the provincial level.

Quebec and British Colombia are currently the only two provinces that prohibit the use of replacement workers during strikes or lockouts. In Ontario, such a prohibition was on the books from 1992 to 1995, but was repealed in 1995 when Liberals took control of the Parliament. Gelinas presented proof that legislation banning companies from using replacement workers leads to shorter strikes, less volatile picket-line scenes, less family and community stress, and overall, better labour-management relations.

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Reports of assaults, vandalism and failure to follow previous court orders on the picket line

Striking workers at an Ontario mining and smelting company have had their picketing significantly restricted by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Workers at Vale INCO, a mining, milling, smelting and refining company in Sudbury, Ont., went on strike on July 13, 2009. From the beginning of the strike, Vale said picketers blocked the entrances to several of the company’s locations, illegally denying it access to its facilities. The union said it was acting within its rights to picket and delay traffic into and out of the workplaces.

Vale was able to obtain legal orders instructing the striking workers not to delay any emergency or environmental vehicles or key staff at the entrances to Vale’s property. Picketers were also limited to delaying other vehicles a maximum of 12 or 15 minutes, depending on the time of day and not to cause any delay for those leaving Vale premises.

The strike became more acrimonious and Vale claimed striking workers were violating the legal orders. It said masked picketers continued to delay all vehicles for between 27 minutes and seven hours and some of its staff were assaulted when they tried to enter the premises. The picket lines were also unsafe from large fires set so Vale trucks carrying explosives and fuel couldn’t cross the lines. Hydro wires were cut, rail equipment damaged and picketers littered the roads with nail spikes designed to puncture truck tires. Vale requested further orders to limit picketing.

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The intent of United Steelworkers Bridging the Gap Rally may have been to send a message about international union solidarity to strike-bound Vale Inco Ltd.

But for one single mother of three, it was an experience that empowered her to believe more than ever that the fight she has been waging for a long eight months can be won by workers like her.

Nancy Marchand, a 13-year employee on Frood-Stobie’s shaft crew, hoisted her daughter, Emily, 2, in the air and raised the girl’s tiny arm in victory with her own when speaker after speaker at the rally earned standing ovations for their powerful messages.

Marchand, her daughter, and sons Maxim, 8, and Gabriel, 10, were among a crowd of about 4,000 who took over Sudbury Communty Arena after marching and chanting from the Steelworkers’ Hall on Brady Street.

Organizers estimated as many as 5,000 placard-bearing, flag-waving strikers, family members, members of other unions and community supporters — hundreds bused in from southern Ontario — took part in the parade.

It could have been deja vu all over again because Bridging the Gap was similar to a rally organized by USW in September with an international solidarity theme, two months into the strike by 3,400 Steelworkers in Sudbury and Port Colborne, and in Voisey’s Bay, NL.

But Monday’s rally built on the momentum established by the Jan. 13 six-month rally that attracted more than 2,000 people, and demonstrated that strikers are more committed to winning their “fair deal” now than they were in the fall.

The rally was held 10 days after 88% of voting Sudbury Steelworkers and 98% of voting strikers in Port Colborne rejected an offer to settle the strike from Vale Inco.

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