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THE SUDBURY STAR, 11 July 2009 

By Denis St. Pierre

Less than a month away from the arrival of their first child, Sarah Hunter and Ronnie Young recognize it's not the best time to be jobless. But the young couple nevertheless voted Friday to reject Vale Inco's contract offer -- a decision that could lead to a long period of unemployment.

"We just can't accept it," Hunter said from a Lively polling booth, one of 10 voting stations set up by the United Steelworkers to allow union members to vote on Vale Inco's contract offer. "They're just taking too much away," Hunter said, referring to Vale's demands for concessions on fundamental issues such as pensions, the nickel bonus and seniority-based job transfers.

Hunter is an electrician with four years' service at Vale Inco, while her husband is an industrial millwright with the company, also with four years' experience. The couple's baby is expected to be born the first week of August, by which time a strike by more than 3,000 Vale Inco workers, members Steelworkers Local 6500, could be in the fourth week.

"We're not sure yet," Hunter said when asked how she and her husband will cope with the loss of two incomes. "We'll take whatever happens and deal with it. I'll have maternity benefits and we've saved up some money."

If Vale Inco's contract offer is rejected, a strike will begin at 12:01 a. m. Monday, barring an eleventh-hour negotiated settlement which appears at this point to be beyond the realm of possibility.

Vale Inco has no intention of seeking a resumption of negotiations this weekend if the union rejects the contract offer, company spokesman Steve Ball said Friday. "There will be no change in our proposal, so whatever the vote is will determine what happens on Monday," Ball said.

Union officials are prepared at any point to resume bargaining, provided the company backs off its concessionary agenda, said John Fera, Steelworkers Local 6500 president. "If they want to avert a strike, they know where to find us," Fera said.

"There's always room for discussion but we've told them we're not going backwards." Turnout was heavy during Friday's voting. Even before the voting stations closed, an unofficial tally indicated at least 2,000 union members had cast ballots.

A single voting station was scheduled to be open today, at the Steelworkers' Hall on Pine Street in Sudbury, from 9 a. m. to 3 p. m. Results were expected to be released by the union by late afternoon or early evening.

Among some three-dozen union members approached individually by The Star at five separate polling stations Friday, not a single person said he or she had voted to accept the company's contract offer.

Fera said he expected a resounding rejection of Vale Inco's contract offer, though he did not predict a figure. "I think they'll see pretty clearly that the membership is pretty strong; they're together." Some union members said they hoped the contract would be rejected by a majority in the 90% range, to demonstrate to Vale Inco the workers' solidarity on the contentious issues.

"I think we're going to put across a strong-enough message that if they want a fight, they're going to get one. We're not going to be disrespected like that," said Shawn Smith, a Garson Mine worker.

Smith was among many workers to employ the word "culture" in describing the impasse between Brazil-based Vale and its Sudbury employees. "They're using the economy as a smoke screen and trying to turn our culture into theirs," Smith said. "They're trying to change our employees into their employees, and that is not an option. We've been told that in Brazil, the average turnover rate for their workers is three years -- that's how great it is to work there. They're trying to force that kind of culture on us and it's not going to happen.

Vale appears to have a problem with employees who want to maintain middle-class lifestyles for themselves and their fami lies, said Craig Allair, a mechanic at Coleman Mine. "We have a middle class in this country; in Brazil they don't. We want to preserve that here," Allair said. "They're trying to bring us down to the level of the workers in Brazil. I think the workers in Brazil might be looking to us to fight back and maybe help bring up their working and living conditions."

Several workers also lashed out at the federal government for allowing Vale to buy Inco Ltd. in 2006 without having to abide by meaningful commitments to Canada and its Canadian workforces. "They came in here three years ago, charming everyone like they were knights in shining armour and now they're going to crap all over our community," said Marc Poirier, a production miner at North Mine. "They keep cutting jobs and now they're coming after us; they want to take us back in time."

If the Vale Inco workers go on strike Monday morning, they will be without any income for three weeks, after which they will begin to receive strike pay of $200 per week. "It's a tough thing to decide you're going to forego your paycheque to stand up for your principles," said Fera. "But at the end of your 30-year career, you know it was the right decision."