BY CRAIG GILBERT
The Steelworkers are returning to the mines, but Inco may have ?set back company-employee relations 15 years.?
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Local 6500 union member Corey Tryon, with his daughter Ryllie, 3, casts his vote on the contract at the Hanmer fire hall Thursday morning. Andy Guy hands out ballots to other union members at the fire hall. |
Members of the United Steelworkers of America Local 6500 voted 62.3 per cent Thursday in favour of a contract reached between Inco Ltd. and the union?s bargaining teams Tuesday afternoon.
Port Colborne Local 6200, which represents 170 workers, voted 92 per cent in favour of the contract.
Alex Patterson, who has worked for Inco for nine years, said he thinks Inco angered a lot of its workers with this contract.
?Inco is probably happy we ratified the contract, but they angered a lot of people,? he said after results came in. ?They probably set back company-employee relations 15 years.
?They should have offered this June 1. They took advantage of the younger workers and starved them into submission.?
Polls closed at the Steelworkers? Hall at 4 pm and the result came in at about 5:20 pm. Eighty per cent of the members (2,551) came out to vote.
Mike Rheaume is not happy with the contract either.
?This was a maintenance strike,? he said. They had this offer planned from June 1. Now they have all the [maintenance] work they need at the plants and they?re giving it to us. A guy?s hurting, and he?s taking it.?
Rheaume has been in the mines off and on for 21 years. He was laid off in 1978 and again in 1982. He returned in
1988.
A major sticking point in negotiations was the health-care benefits package for current and future retirees.
The current levels of coverage will be maintained under the new contract, something the membership was concerned about.
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Sixty-two per cent voted in favour of the contract. |
?The company has agreed to continue providing coverage for Formulary 2-35-cents prescription drug benefit; the dental plan (including endodonics, periodontics and orthodontics, with 50 per cent of fees paid to a maximum of $1,500); semi-private hospitalization; and vision-care benefits (based on the current level of benefits),? a summary of the contract says.
This agreement applies to current as well as future retirees and all survivors.
An across-the-board immediate wage increase of 40 cents per hour was negotiated, with members receiving an increase of $1.78 over a three-year period.
Members will receive a signing bonus of $1,500 within seven days of ratification.
Although the union wanted a pension increase of $300 per month for Steelworkers who retire before the age of 65, they settled for an increase of $150 per month to $3,150 or $37,800 annually.
Survivors of pensioners who retired after June 1, 1997 will receive a $5,500 death benefit while the families of those who retired before that date will receive $500.
Bereavement leave of five days has been expanded to include mother, father, sister and brother, as well as immediate family.
Any employee required to attend jury duty or serve as a crown witness will be paid his or her regular scheduled shift.
Under the new agreement the company will officially recognize April 28 as the Annual Day of Remembrance for
workers who died on the job. The company will lower to half-mast all flags flown at the workplace on that day.
"We're very pleased,? said Inco spokesperson Cory McPhee.
?We think it's a fair deal...and it provides opportunities for the company to continue containing costs and
improving productivity. Our objective now is to safely resume full productivity... and we look forward to getting on with the process of creating a long-term future in Sudbury."
It has been estimated that Inco lost as much as $23 million per month since the strike began at the beginning of June.
Local businesses have reported losses of up to 30 per cent during the strike.
About 3,300 workers and their families were affected by the strike.
There are about 10,000 Inco retirees.
