Contract talks between Brazilian miner Vale and Canadian-USW Local 9508 this week in Newfoundland and Labrador ended with no progress made toward ending a strike at the company's Voisey's Bay operations by 130 mine and mill employees that began on August 1, 2009.
According to a July 23 statement by Vale, since talks broke off USW has increased the level and volume of misinformation to deflect attention from their unwillingness to engage in meaningful negotiations. The facts, according to Vale's version, are as follows:
The USW bargaining team began proceedings by declaring itself unwilling to negotiate any additional outstanding items until Vale agreed to a full-time paid union president position for Voisey's Bay.
At the urging of Vale and the provincial conciliators, the USW finally submitted a counter-proposal that contained no change in the union's position on the major outstanding issues and introduced significant new monetary demands. Accepted as is, the union proposal, according to Vale, would increase Vale's labour costs by 45% over the previous collective agreement.
Vale stated the Local union president said he "doesn't understand the company's calculations" and "all they asked for was an 8 percent pay increase," but stressed that asking for 8 percent a year over three years (compounded annually) is actually more than a 24 percent pay increase.
Vale went on to say that other financial demands made by the USW, and not mentioned by the union president, include: an additional 10% increase in base wages for each night spent at the Voisey's Bay site; a Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA); a nickel bonus; overtime at time-and-a-half after 8 hours a day (when employees work a 12-hour shift schedule); and a shift premium of $1.50 an hour for night shift. Both the shift premium and the overtime are new items never before raised by the USW in any prior negotiations over the past 12 months.
The USW staff representative, Vale said, has been quoted as saying "the company offered an inferior bonus system based on incentives and refused to discuss other outstanding issues on the table until the union agrees to the new bonus system." This is completely untrue, according to Vale. There was no bonus proposal tabled during the two days of talks, Vale said, adding that all that transpired was a preliminary one hour discussion on bonus possibilities which both USW and Vale agreed to do - that ended quickly, along with the talks themselves - when the union adopted a "we want the Sudbury deal" position and refused to engage further, a reversal of its earlier willingness to explore Labrador-specific solutions. Vale said that at no time was a bonus proposal tabled and at no time were potential bonus options financially evaluated for comparison purposes.
Vale said that the USW leadership has accused Vale of treating its members as "second-class citizens," but said that this has no basis in truth whatsoever. Vale stated that its offer is a very good one - with wage increases, pension increases, a good bonus plan, and other improvements to the expired collective agreement.
On August 30, Vale and the USW will be in front of the provincial Labor Relations Board for a hearing on the Bargaining in Bad Faith claim brought by the company against the union for its conduct to date. At that time, Vale said it will be amending its claim to include the continued unwillingness to engage in meaningful negotiations demonstrated by the USW during this latest round of talks.