More than 200 Steelworkers at Vale Inco's Voisey's Bay nickel mine in northern Labrador struck the company at midnight Newfoundland Daylight Time (NDT) Aug. 1.
Neither the company nor union expected the strike to be averted. Workers had last struck Voisey's Bay three years ago in a dispute over the nickel bonus.
The most recent three-year labour agreement, covering more than 200 Voisey's Bay miners, caterers and security guards, expired March 1.
The Voisey's Bay workers joined their striking USW brothers and sisters at Local 6500 in Sudbury and Local 6200 in Port Colborne, Ont., who went on strike July 13 over pensions and bonuses.
Output from Voisey's Bay, which can produce 50,000 tons of nickel ore a year for processing at Vale Inco's Sudbury and Thompson operations, was halted July 1 because of the global recession.
Vale, the world's second-biggest nickel producer, shut down most of its Sudbury operations on May 1 for maintenance and completely halted production on June 1. Vale Inco startd a one-month scheduled shutdown Aug. 1 here in Thompson, meaning the company at the moment is mining no nickel anywhere in Canada.
