BY KEITH LACEY
Saying there's power in numbers, the largest union representing miners in Greater Sudbury and across Canada has made a renewed commitment to increase solidarity of Steelworkers around the world.
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The top brass from the United Steelworkers (USW) gathered in Sudbury Wednesday to announce the formation of a new Steelworker Inco/Falconbridge Council and throw their unanimous support behind Inco's $12.5 billion cash and stocks takeover of Falconbridge Ltd.
More than two dozen union representatives from mining operations in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes gathered in Sudbury for a planning session Wednesday at the Steelworkers Hall on Frood Rd.
USW International president Leo Gerard also voiced the union's deep concerns over any potential takeover of Falconbridge by Swiss-based Xstrata PLC and its largest shareholder Glencore International, which he called "union busters" among other choice words seldom printed in family newspapers.
The merger of Inco and Falconbridge would create a powerful Canadian company with an overwhelming Steelworker representation throughout its North American operations, which would be good news for Greater Sudbury, Canada and all communities where Inco and Falconbridge are active, said Gerard.
"We take the position of maximum solidarity...which will allow us to negotiate long-term commitments to the communities where our people work," said Gerard.
"This proposed merger will create a very strong Canadian company in the global mining industry and we feel that's very important."
Steelworkers would represent close to 8,500 workers in a combined Inco-Falconbridge company in 15 bargaining units across Canada and the United States as well as 20,000 retirees and their families, said Gerard.
The new union council will meet again in Sudbury early in the new year to finalize strategies for a first collective agreement for USW members in Voisey's Bay in Newfoundland and for more than 3,000 members of Local 6500 in Sudbury, said Gerard.
The contract for Local 6500 members expires at the end of May in 2006.
Wayne Fraser, District 6 Director of the USW, said when the Inco takeover bid of Falconbridge was announced several weeks ago, union bosses did a quick analysis and "realized very quickly we would endorse the merger wholeheartedly."
Once approved, the new Inco would not only become the world's largest mining company, but one of the most powerful mining companies on the planet based in Canada and would provide endless opportunities for unionized members, said Fraser.
"Foreign ownership makes no sense at all...Canadian operations would become nothing but a branch plant," he said.
