The following open letter to the community from the United Steelworkers was published in today’s Sudbury Star.
By John Fera, President, Steelworkers Local 6500 and
Rick Bertrand, Vice-President, Steelworkers Local 6500
March 11, 2010 — After refusing to negotiate for eight months, Vale Inco recently accepted a proposal from the United Steelworkers’ to hold exploratory discussions with the assistance of a mediator. But it threw away the opportunity to use those talks, as well as an extraordinary offer from the Steelworkers, to resolve the strike it provoked.
During the talks, conducted from late February though March 7, the United Steelworkers offered numerous new proposals and repeatedly sought common ground on key issues. The union’s exceptional willingness to pursue mutual compromises clearly formed the basis for a settlement and the end of this strike.
However, fair and meaningful bargaining requires good faith from both sides, and, unfortunately, Vale failed to reciprocate.
Rather than respond in kind to the union’s goodwill, the Brazilian-owned and managed multinational offered only minimal changes on minor issues. Mostly, Vale continued to demand complete capitulation to its rigid demands that would hurt Sudbury working families, trigger job losses throughout our local economy and damage our community’s future.
Just as the mediator called off the exploratory discussions, Vale threw at the union as a fait accompli what it called an “offer for settlement.” Before union negotiators could even read the massive document, Vale posted on its website an incomplete, slanted version of its “offer.” Vale’s propaganda failed to reflect its refusal to seek genuine compromises to reach agreement and end the strike. It’s version of reality neglects the destructive ramifications its demands would have for working families and our community.
Despite Vale’s refusal to join in the union’s spirit of compromise, the Steelworkers made another unprecedented attempt to reach a settlement.
The union proposed that all outstanding issues be referred to binding arbitration. We also offered to end the strike during arbitration. Because this dispute presents unique circumstances, the union went to extraordinary lengths and broke with its tradition of spurning binding arbitration.
The Steelworkers hoped for a positive response from Vale because in Brazil, labour disputes often are resolved through a binding, arbitrated settlement.
Yet here in Canada, Vale thumbed its nose at the proposal for binding arbitration, coldly rejecting a clear path to a fair settlement and an immediate end to the strike.
Vale’s behaviour is so insidious that it has even raised the ire of respected American corporate executive Leo Hindery Jr., a leading advocate for corporate responsibility.
“Almost nothing in labour relations is more vile than ‘conditioned bargaining,’ yet Vale has made this approach the base of its demands,” Hindery wrote in a recent column.
“We are seeing firsthand Vale’s insensitivity to its workers and their communities, as it tries to run away from fair wages and benefits that are the product of longtime collective bargaining,” he said.
Today and tomorrow , striking Steelworkers in Greater Sudbury and Port Colborne will vote on Vale’s disingenuous and substandard “offer of settlement.” Afterward, the union will publicly discuss details of this “offer.” It should be clear, however, that Vale’s approach to bargaining in Canada stands in stark contrast with that of nickel miner Xstrata, which arranged for local management to settle a new contract without inciting a labour dispute.
We hope we’ve explained why the United Steelworkers bargaining committee has unanimously recommended that our members reject Vale’s “offer.”
For eight months now, 3,000 Steelworkers and their families and untold others in our communities have endured the pain of a strike caused by the Brazilian multinational Vale Inco.
It is Vale’s refusal to bargain in good faith that dictates we must continue this struggle, one that has only succeeded so far because of the aid of our supportive communities.
