Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas announced in the Legislative Assembly that she will be introducing a bill to the Ontario Legislature on April 29 that would ban replacement workers in the province.
“The Labour Dispute between Vale Inco and USW 6500 in Sudbury and USW 6200 in Port Colborne has now dragged on for over nine months,” Gélinas said, in a press release.
“3,000 people are out walking the picket lines and I’ve got to say that we see the effects of this strike everywhere in Nickel Belt.”
“People in Sudbury are talking about the escalating tensions in the Labour dispute, ever since Vale Inco has announced that they will resume full production by using replacement workers,” Gélinas said.
“The ban on replacement workers during a strike or lockout used to be the law in Ontario,” Gélinas said. “Labour disputes were settled quicker and it reduced tensions on the picket lines.”
When an identical bill was voted on during the last session, the Liberals defeated it. But one Liberal member voted for the bill, she said.
“I hope more Liberal MPPs will do the right thing and vote with their conscience on this issue,” Gélinas said.
Earlier in the day, Gélinas asked the Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forests, to get involved in the Vale Inco dispute as the Ontario government has the constitutional right to oversee mining rules and mining operations. However, the Minister in charge of mining declined to respond and handed it off to the Minister of Labour.
