Vale and Steelworkers reach tentative agreement

Vale and United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 and Local 6200 have reached an early tentative agreement on a new five-year contract for production and maintenance employees in Sudbury and Port Colborne, the union announced Monday.

A press release issued by Vale and the USW this morning states the new five-year collective bargaining agreement takes effect June 1.

Details of the tentative deal will remain confidential until the United Steelworkers hold ratification meetings with members on April 29 and April 30.

"The negotiations process has been productive and respectful, and we are encouraged that we have been able to reach an early tentative agreement that is unanimously recommended by both bargaining committees for our members to consider," said Rick Bertrand, president of United Steelworkers Local 6500, in a press release. "We endorse this deal and look forward to presenting the details to our membership as it paves the road for the next five years."

"We believe we have reached a tentative agreement that appropriately meets the needs of both the company and our USW Local 6500 and 6200 employees," said Mitch Medina, manager, HR, Health, Safety & Environment and lead negotiator for Vale. "Both teams have worked very hard and in a spirit of cooperation to achieve the positive result we were all hoping for."

The tentative deal between both parties stands in stark contrast to the last round of labour negotiations in 2009, which led to a bitter year-long strike that started July 13, 2009, and ended July 8, 2010.

It was the longest strike in the company's history — including Inco — and involved more than 3,000 unionized workers.

The United Steelworkers took issue with proposals from Vale at the time to reduce a bonus tied to the price of nickel and to exempt new employees from a defined-benefit pension plan.

New employees would have been moved to a defined-contribution plan instead, which would have been dependent on the nickel market for returns to the worker.

Tensions rose during the strike when Vale had some of its contract employees, and non-striking unionized workers, restart some of its local operations.

Vale also took the union to court over a variety of alleged incidents on the picket lines, and fired nine employees.

The employees fought for and won the right for them to participate in arbitration hearings determining if they could return to work at Vale.