Strike deadline at Xstrata Nickel Jan. 31

BY KEITH LACEY

Seven days leaves plenty of time to work things out, but a union boss says unless there are dramatic improvements at the bargaining table, it's looking more and more like members of Local 598 of the Mine Mill/CAW will be on the picket line for the third time in seven years.

"Absolutely things have to change dramatically over the next few days and the company has to change its position on a number of issues or we won't have a satisfactory settlement in time," said Rick Grylls, president of Local 598 Tuesday morning.

"We have a clear mandate by our membership to clean up several key workplace issues...but so far management has been unwilling to listen to our message."

Ian Hamilton, spokesperson for Xstrata PLC, said the company believes a deal can be reached.

"We remain hopeful an agreement can be reached, but we do know we are reaching a critical point in the discussions," said Hamilton.

The company will not discuss specifics as those are best discussed between management and the union's bargaining committee, he said.

Without getting into details, Hamilton said the debate over contract language remains a problem.

"We believe the current agreement has fair and reasonable contract language and any new collective agreement will also have fair and reasonable language," he said.

"With one week to go before the current deal expires, discussions are continuing...and we remain dedicated to trying to reach a deal that is acceptable to all parties."

More than 1,000 members are prepared to walk the picket line next Wednesday at midnight if a new collective agreement with Xstrata Nickel, which operates Sudbury operations for Swiss-based Xstrata PLC, is not reached, said Grylls.

There was a three-week strike in 2004 and bitter seven-month strike against the former Falconbridge Ltd. in 2000-01.

There hasn't been a "single discussion" after weeks of negotiations over monetary issues such as wage increases and improvements to benefits and pensions, said Grylls.

The process has become bogged down for more than one month over contract language issues relating to workplace issues like job postings, training, job transfers and vacation, said Grylls.

The membership has given up contract language over the past decade relating to these issues and wants clearer, more precise language in any collective agreement which benefits the members of Local 598, said Grylls.

"I've talked to many workers and they tell me the atmosphere in the workplace is the worst than at any time they can remember," said Grylls. "It's been even worse than after our long seven-month strike back in 2000-01."

Senior employees are demanding the right to receive proper training to transfer jobs and want assurances they can receive this assistance in contract language, but the company appears unwilling to move, said Grylls.

"This is the same exercises we went through with the old Falconbridge management," he said. "We're talking a little more with the Xstrata group, but they have not been more responsive.

"Our people have made it very clear they're prepared to walk the picket line to get language that guarantees things like training, job postings and job transfers. The company should realize these are not issues that can be swept under the carpet."

One piece of good news is a joint union-management team has cleared up dozens of grievances in the past few weeks, which shows progress can be made if both sides are willing to negotiate, said Grylls.

It's not unusual for monetary matters to be the last issues discussed during collective bargaining, but until other key matters are talked about, addressed and resolved, time is quickly running out if a new deal is to be reached, said Grylls.