Northern Life columnist Stan Sudol will appear on the TVO program The Agenda tonight (June 14) at 8 p.m. to discuss whether the labour dispute between Vale and Steelworkers Local 6500 will end any time soon.
Sudol said that he hopes that both sides will settle their differences in the next round of talks, which are coming up later this week.
“We're almost at a year (on strike), and there's a sense in the community that enough is enough,” he said.
Sudol said he thinks part of the reason the strike has lasted so long is the “culture clash” between the Brazilian owners of Vale and the union leadership.
“There does not seem to be much accommodation to the differences on both sides,” he said.
As well, Vale's nickel business only makes up about 10 per cent of the larger company, while in the past, the Sudbury operations commanded approximately 50 per cent of the global operations of the old Inco, Sudol said.
“The strike does not have the same economic impact on Vale as it would have in the past on the old Inco,” he said.
While speaking to Northern Life, Sudol also referred to the June 13 Globe and Mail article “A breakthrough in China, another blow for Sudbury.”
The article examines the impact of “nickel pig iron,” or a material produced in mostly China and used a substitute for traditional refined nickel, on the nickel mines in Sudbury.
David Constable, Quadra FNX Mining Ltd. vice-president of investor relations, is quoted in the article as saying nickel pig iron puts a cap on world nickel prices.
The article also says if nickel prices were to surge, nickel pig iron producers could “quickly flood the market with their lower-cost alternative.”
Sudol said he agrees that nickel pig iron, which as been around for at least a decade, will probably put a cap on the price of nickel.
“It is a factor in the nickel market,” Sudol said. “However, Sudbury should not worry about nickel pig iron. The Globe and Mail’s headlines were unnecessarily sensationalized."
He adds that he thinks nickel pig iron should really be called “dirty nickel” because the processing of the material in blast furnaces adds up to an “environmental nightmare” for China.
