A spokesman for the United Steelworkers Union says he’s not surprised by Vale print ads criticising the union’s role in the Voisey’s Bay strike. The ad outlines several financial proposals, and says the union doesn’t understand the math involved. But Boyd Bussey says one of the company’s tactics since the beginning of negotiations has been to misrepresent the facts instead of returning to the bargaining table. He says his math is dead on, and Vale’s math is wrong. He says the company needs to give up this kind of tactic. He says it’s intimidation, and everytime the union makes statements in the press, Vale charges the union. He says they are making the union spend its money and are trying to bust it, instead of coming to the table and negotiating a fair deal.

The strike has been ongoing for more than a year, and Bussey says there is no end in sight. He says he’s asked Danny Williams to get involved. He says Williams is supposed to be looking at alternatives and getting back to the union. He says to this date, the company has not shown any interest in returning to the bargaining table.

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A long-running labour dispute at the Voisey’s Bay nickel mine in northern Labrador has spilled over into the courts.

Darren Cove, president of the United Steelworkers local at Voisey’s Bay, said he was served Monday with documents in a civil lawsuit.

Cove said a statement of claim filed by Vale alleges that Cove defamed the company when he recently said it was treating its workers like second-class citizens.

About 200 Steelworkers members in Labrador have been off the job since early August in 2009, in a strike over wages and benefits.

Cove said lawyers for the Steelworkers have told him they have never before seen an employer use such a tactic in a labour dispute.

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Representatives for United Steelworkers and Vale Ltd. met Friday to discuss the union’s complaint that contractors are doing work that 18 laid-off Steelworkers could be doing.

USW staff representative Myles Sullivan said the parties are trying to reach a resolution about the use of contractors as operations at the nickel company begin to return to normal after an almost year-long strike.

About 2,700 members of USW Local 6500 are back to work six weeks after they approved a new five-year collective agreement with the nickel company based in Brazil.

Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson said all employees except the 18 workers laid off are back on the job and all of Vale’s Sudbury plants are on their way to ramping up to full production.

Both furnaces have been fired up at the Copper Cliff Smelter Complex, and Vale is predicting it will return to full production in Sudbury by the end of September.

But Sullivan said life has not returned to normal for his 18 members who were told just after the strike ended that they no longer had jobs.

Tensions are also running high in many workplaces as Steelworkers off the job for more than a year, in some instances, reclaim their places in the company.

Sullivan said a “high volume” of grievances has been filed by the union on behalf of members in the six weeks since the new contract was accepted and Steelworkers began returning to work.

Under the terms of the return-to-work protocol signed by the two sides, Vale had six weeks to call Steelworkers back to their jobs.

Grievances have been filed relating to a number of issues, said Sullivan — such as discipline, hours of work, shift schedules and paid lunches.

In some cases, union members have complained that personal belongings such as tools and gear was missing when they returned to their operations.

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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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