UPDATED — May 21, 2:10 p.m.
Steelworkers Local 6500 president John Fera said he doesn't understand why Vale Inco hasn't yet agreed to negotiate with the union between June 4 and 7. Mediator Kevin Burkett has set aside these dates to work with the two sides in Toronto, and the union has confirmed their negotiating team can attend.
However, Vale Inco spokesperson Steve Ball told Northern Life May 21 that “from a company perspective, at this time, no new formal talks are currently scheduled between the company and the union.”
Fera said that the law firm Vale Inco hires probably has 40 or 50 lawyers, and it seems reasonable that the company should be able to find a lawyer to participate in negotiations.
“It seems to me that if they can sue us on a moment's notice, and get to court within two days, I don't see why they can't confirm the June dates, unless what we've been saying has come true —that they're not interested in talking.”
Despite the fact that the company has not yet agreed to the negotiation dates proposed by Burkett, Fera said he remains hopeful that talks will resume.
“We're here to negotiate, and we're here to get a fair contract, and we can't get it alone,” he said.
On May 17, the Ontario Labour Relations Board directed the two parties to re-start negotiations, preferably with the assistance of Burkett.
However, they have been asked to set aside the issue of whether nine union members who have been fired during the strike because of alleged incidents on the picket line will be able to return to work.
Once the parties have worked out their differences on most of the major issues, if they aren't able to resolve the issues surrounding the recall of workers, they have been directed to return to the labour board.
The two parties have engaged in two sets of negotiations since Local 6500 members went on strike more than 10 months ago, but these talks failed to garner a deal. The latest set of negotiations took place about two weeks ago.
