Union leaders urging striking Vale workers to reject company's latest offer
Stripping new employees of retirement benefits is the main issue in the labour dispute
Striking Vale workers in Sudbury go back to the polls today, two weeks after they rejected a proposed contract that sent them out onto the picketlines for the first time in a decade.
The two sides have been at the bargaining table since 70 per cent members of United Steelworkers Local 6500 voted down a tentative agreement, which union leaders were endorsing.
This time, the negotiating team is recommending that the 2,500 striking mine, mill and smelter workers vote no again.
"Health and medical benefits and lack of recognition for our members' value to the company remain crucial issues. Vale's new offer does not adequately address these issues," Local 6500 President Nick Larochelle said in a release.
"Vale knows it provoked this strike by demanding concessions, yet it continues to attack health benefits."
"We want to be clear —our members want to get back to work, but they expect a good-faith offer from Vale that respects their concerns."
The Steelworkers say the second offer would still see all new hires at Vale not receive any health benefits in retirement, but replaces them with a newly proposed $1,000 "health care savings account."
Vale says it is "disappointed" that the union bargaining committee is advising its members to reject this proposal.
"The company and the union negotiated in good faith over a period of months leading to an initial offer that we believed, based on those discussions, represented the needs of our employees. Our new offer addresses the identified gaps," Dino Otranto, Vale's chief operating officer of North Atlantic operations, said in a statement.
"We feel it is important to acknowledge the level of respect demonstrated to date by both bargaining teams as well as the peaceful behaviour of our employees and Local 6500 members on the picket line. Our efforts at the table have focused on reaching a deal that benefits employees and the community while addressing challenges in the business. We feel our revised offer does that."