Talks have "slowed to a crawl", but union negotiators remain confident a deal between Local 598 of the Mine Mill/CAW and XStrata Nickel management can still be worked out over the next two weeks.
"It's totally in the company's hands now...talks have slowed down, but the issues we face are easily resolvable if the company wants them resolved," said Richard Paquin, unit chair for Local 598.
More than 1,000 union members are expected to give the union's bargaining team overwhelming support to take strike action if a new contract isn't reached by the Jan. 31 deadline during two strike mandate votes set for the Navy League Hall Tuesday (Jan. 16).
The voting takes place at 2 and 7:30 pm.
The main stumbling blocks over the past couple of weeks centre around contract language relating to posting jobs and vacation, said Paquin.
The company has been reluctant to allow contract language which would allow senior union members to transfer to the Nickel Rim Mine once it's set to open for full production in late 2008, said Paquin.
The company is also showing reluctance to allow some senior union members to take vacation time the union insists is owed to them, he said.
The union remains discouraged by the recent lack of face-to-face talks with the company's negotiating team, said Paquin.
"We just haven't met much lately and that's a concern with the current contract set to expire in only two weeks," he said.
The company has also refused to provide information about the Nickel Rim project, procedure policies and guideline manuals, he said.
The union is concerned these delays might result in a scenario which surfaced in 2004, where what seemed like minor details dragged on and there wasn't enough time left to reach a collective agreement, resulting in a brief strike, said Paquin.
"We haven't had any discussions whatsoever over monetary issues," he said. "Obviously we're worried we have so far to go and there's not a lot of time left to get everything done."
A provincial mediator will be back in town Wednesday and Paquin said he hopes this will signal a return to the bargaining table by the company.
Xstrata officials say they will not discuss negotiations in the media.
