Nickelled and Damned
The current issue of the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine features a story on the Vale Inco strike that began in July 2009 and continues with no end in sight.
Report on Business Magazine, March 26, 2010: Nickelled and damned: The bitter strike at a Canadian icon pits the new breed of global mining giant against a union clinging to the past
EXTRACTS:
The wrong foot was when Vale started to spell out the new tune that Agnelli had been whistling. The essence was that Vale wants to have the same style of operation that it has in the rest of the world. In particular, Vale wanted to end the Inco defined benefit pension plan and move to a less onerous defined contribution plan, such as the one Vale miners at Voisey’s Bay have. Next on the list of changes was a reduction of the profit-sharing plan known as the nickel bonus, which in the rare years of soaring nickel prices could increase pay dramatically.
An unexpected and perhaps annoying jolt for the company came in January from the trade magazine Metal Bulletin. Regarded by some as the bible of the metals industry, the magazine bluntly described Vale's hard line as an attempt to break the union.
“Who are the Vale leaders that speak for our community?” Fera asked. “Does it not bother anyone that nobody in this company speaks for Sudbury?” And he turned the sharp edge of wounded national pride against the federal and provincial governments: “When are they going to speak for the working families that pay the freight in this province and this country?”
In the end, it is Fera who has delivered what may be the saddest judgment on one of the most painful of Canada’s labour disputes: “I don’t think they speak the same language as us. I don’t think we’re on the same page when we talk about negotiations. They don’t seem to understand how we talk and, in fairness, I don’t think we understand how they talk. It’s not the same language. It’s not the same meaning.”
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