FOCUS / CANADA FOR SALE

The buyout boom of Canadian companies is stirring intense controversy and throwing a harsh spotlight on the role of corporate executives.

As the selloff of Canada’s biggest and best-known companies reaches record levels, politicians, labor leaders and even some business executives are accusing the country’s corporate elite of sacrificing Canada’s future for the sake of short-term gains. As well as stirring some deep concerns throughout the country, the unprecedented transfer of assets out of Canada threatens to become an explosive issue for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s pro-business, pro-American minority government in the next federal election—which some pundits predict could be called before the end of the year as the Conservatives sink in popularity polls.

The high-water mark in Canada’s M&A frenzy came this summer when British mining conglomerate Rio Tinto acquired aluminum giant Alcan of Montreal for $38.1 billion. The Alcan deal is the biggest foreign takeover in Canadian history, but it is only a small portion of the $165.3 billion worth of M&A activity initiated by foreigners this year to September 25. The latest figure compares with $78.8 billion for the same period a year ago and a record $105.5 billion worth of foreign M&A activity for all of 2006.

The long list of companies sold includes nickel giants Inco and Falconbridge, acquired by Brazil’s CVRD and Switzerland’s Xstrata for $17.6 billion and $17.3 billion, respectively; and steelmakers such as Dofasco, Algoma, AltaSteel and Stelco, swallowed up by Luxembourg’s Arcelor, India’s Essar Global, Sweden’s SCAW and US Steel. “We have resources, and the world is beating a path to our doorstep,” says senior economist Peter Buchanan with investment bank CIBC World Markets in Toronto, referring to the keen global appetite for base metals and commodities, particularly by the red-hot economies of China, India, Indonesia and Russia.


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By Helder Marinho

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Vale SA, the world’s biggest iron- ore producer, said fourth-quarter profit rose less than analysts expected on increased expenses from the longest strike in the company’s history. Shares fell on the costs.

Fourth-quarter net income increased 11 percent to $1.52 billion, or 28 cents a share, from $1.37 billion, or 26 cents, in the year-earlier period, Rio de Janeiro-based Vale said yesterday in a regulatory filing. That is less than the 31 cents a share average of 13 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Iron-ore and nickel volumes declined during the quarter as falling Chinese demand for iron and strikes at nickel mines cut exports, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Rodolfo De Angele said in a note to clients. The strikes also boosted costs because of the expenses of restarting production, he said. Vale had a $236 million expense related to the nickel unit strike in Canada.

The company will likely recover after a “transition quarter” and “is still a solid value story,” said De Angele, who rates Vale “overweight.”

Vale declined 1.14 reais, or 2.7 percent, to 41.06 reais in Sao Paulo trading at 9:26 a.m. New York time.

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As a member of Local 6500 USW, a former Inco employee and a Sudburian, I am immensely proud of the solidarity and strength displayed by our members and their families. I also admire and appreciate how the community has come together to support the strikers in this bitter struggle. The community's positive contribution has been encouraging and gratifying.

Unions have fought bitter struggles before. However, in my 40 years of union work, in my experience with our nearly 8,000 Steelworker bargaining units in North America, and with the thousands of corporations, big and small, that we work and negotiate with every day, never have I seen a company behave as Vale Inco has in Sudbury.

The Vale practice of taking out full page ads with blanket, unwarranted accusations of violence, vandalism, premeditated assaults and death threats, all of which are nothing more than unproven allegations that assail our whole membership (Vale's long-term employees), is part of a campaign it has waged to divide the community and intimidate the strikers.

Our union has always advocated that its members follow the laws of the land and acts of violence have never been condoned. We must remain calm in the face of Vale's antagonism, provocations and endless diatribes aimed at sparking a reaction to further feed the company's anti-union public message.

In addition to its regular doses of union-busting pronouncements, Vale is trying to sue individual strikers for up to $230,000 for "lost production," hiring private security firms to intimidate and provoke strikers into reacting, having Vale's private investigators and agents provocateur observe and film union rallies at the union hall, as well as following and spying on striking employees.

Never in any labour dispute have we seen a company spokesperson, on a regular basis, publicly berate, belittle and cast unfounded damaging aspersions against their striking employees and their union. A reasonable person may ask: why is the company continually attacking the union and its members, rather than seeking a fair contract and a return to bargaining without pre-conditions, which may allow everyone to get back to work?

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SUDBURY, Ont. - Nickel miner Xstrata (LSE:XTA) has reached a tentative labour agreement with its workers in the northern Ontario city of Sudbury, averting a possible strike.

Although the Canadian Auto Workers union said Sunday the two sides were still "miles apart," setting the stage for a strike on Monday, talks went through the night and a deal was eventually reached.

"You keep talking about your issues, back and forth, back and forth, and you talk face-to-face and you get to understand each point of view, and eventually we were able to get a deal," said Richard Paquin, president of CAW Local 598, which represents Xstrata's 1,100 mine, mill and smelter workers in Sudbury.

Details of the deal won't be released until workers vote on it. Votes will be held throughout the day Tuesday, and the final results are expected Tuesday night. The union's bargaining team has recommended that members accept the agreement.

"We believe the new offer is fair and equitable, addressing the needs of both the company and employees. We can continue to work together to pursue our goals in Sudbury, positioning our business for future success," stated Marc Boissonneault, vice-president of Xstrata Nickel's Sudbury operations.

Negotiations between the Anglo-Swiss mining giant and the union have been going on since Dec. 16.

The union was pushing the company to recall more than 500 workers who have been on layoff since last February and was in talks about reopening the company's Fraser copper mine.

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Natalie Bertolo-McAloney found a letter on her restaurant floor that questioned her support for Steelworkers Local 6500 members.

By: Heidi Ulrichsen - Sudbury Northern Life
When Steelworkers Local 6500 went on strike last summer, Natalie Bertolo-McAloney went right out and picked up a “Sudbury Supports our Working Families” sign, in support of the strikers, to put in the window of her small Durham Street restaurant, Bertolo’s Homemade Foods.

“I was probably the first one to have a sign up downtown,” she said.

“We are a mining town. This is what Sudbury is all about, and I felt for these people being on strike.”

But she was caught off guard yesterday morning (Jan. 27) , when she found a letter on her restaurant floor that questioned her support. She said she believes the typed note was pushed through the mail slot in the door overnight.


The letter, which contained numerous spelling and grammar errors and was signed by a “concerned merchant,” asked her to take down the sign in support of Local 6500 because of the union’s “thug-like tactics to the community to force support for their cause,” and because strikers have “openly called for boycotts of our businesses downtown, and have threatened, and in some cases physical abused, members of this community.”

It also said “we will be advising all downtown businesses to boycott this establishment until that sign is removed.”

Bertolo-McAloney said she will not be taking down her sign “because it feels like the right thing to do for me to keep it up.”

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United Steelworkers is marking the sixth-month anniversary of its strike against Vale Inco Ltd. with a parade and a flurry of paper, but neither is the ticker-tape variety.

The union representing 3,300 strikers at Vale Inco's Ontario operations is filing a bad-faith bargaining complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board, asking it to order the company to resume bargaining with the union and a mediator.

The complaint also asks the board to order Vale Inco to compensate

strikers for wages, benefits and seniority lost if the OLRB determines Vale Inco has prolonged the strike with its bargaining practices.

USW is seeking to be reimbursed $200 a week in strike pay per member and other expenses it has incurred throughout the strike.

The unfair labour practice complaint was to be filed by the union with the labour board in Toronto today.

The union charges Vale Inco engaged in unfair labour practice before and during the strike because it had a "secret" plan to reduce its workforce by 40% and "reduce union people" working for the company.

The strike is by production and maintenance workers with USW Local 6500 in Sudbury and Local 6200 in Port

Colborne.

USW was to present the complaint with fanfare -assisted by two Sudbury miners dressed in full work gear -at the Toronto office of the labour relations board while a parade and other events were being observed in Sudbury.

The Sudbury Star was leaked a draft of the complaint in which the union says it obtained a document it called "the company strategy" from an anonymous source after the strike began July 13.

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TORONTO – After striking for six months, nickel miners at Vale Inco Ltd. are launching a legal action to try to push the company to the bargaining table.

The United Steelworkers union, which represents 3,500 striking Vale Inco workers in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ont., is filing a bad-faith bargaining complaint against the company, claiming it is not making every reasonable effort to resolve the dispute.

The union leaders say that management refuses to even meet with them until they agree to make massive concessions. On the other hand, they claim that they are willing to meet and discuss any issue.

"Our view is that this (refusal by the company to negotiate) steps over the frontier of lawful and unlawful behaviour," said Brian Shell, a labour lawyer representing the union. "It says: `We're not prepared to make any reasonable effort. We're only prepared to win.' "

He said that possible remedies from the bad-faith complaint include a declaration forcing Vale Inco to change its bargaining position, and actual damages against the company.

Financial Post

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To read the rest of the document, read the rest.

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The scanned documents from the court order are available here.. Read the rest of the article to see the documents.


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SUDBURY –Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" is blasting from a satellite radio in the tent's makeshift living room.

A couple of plush La-Z-Boy rockers and a couch surround a blazing wood stove. The fresh Christmas tree in the corner gives the place a cozy holiday feeling.

Three hearty men in heavy overcoats and toques hover around the stove, slap their gloves and exchange brotherly greetings. The song ends and they step outside into another world.

There's not a lot of love or warmth there. They're on the picket line just after sunrise a few days before Christmas at Vale Inco's Clarabelle Mill.

It's a flashpoint in the five-month standoff between some 3,100 workers and one of the world's biggest mining companies.

The workers face a bitter wind, -20C temperatures and a company spending millions of dollars to keep them in line. Strikers walk the line and delay trucks and cars for 12 to 15 minutes before allowing them through to the sprawling mill up the road.

Then, they walk some more.

Guards from a Toronto security firm monitor their movements. There are cameras on telephone poles, industrial lights for surveillance at night and parabolic dishes to pick up conversations hundreds of feet away.

The two sides don't talk to each other. Like the ground beneath them, it's a deep freeze.

"It's a war zone here," says millwright and picket captain James Joudrey. "Their tactics are designed to provoke us like never before. They're not interested in getting back to bargaining."

Sudbury is used to strikes, but this one is different. It's not like the walkouts of 1958, 1966, 1969, 1978-79, 1982, 1997 and 2003. The change is apparent everywhere.

"There is no doubt this one is like no other (strike) in Inco's history," says Rick Bertrand, vice-president of United Steelworkers Local 6500, about the current dispute.

Some of those long strikes temporarily crippled the local economy because the city relied so much on "Mother Inco" and its payroll. In the 1970s, Inco represented 25 per cent or more of the local workforce. Now, it counts for less than 5 per cent.

The bustling city of 157,000 has diversified into other sectors, from mining innovation and equipment manufacturing to education, healthcare and tourism.

Some local manufacturers, retailers and families are hurting but the hardship isn't as widespread as in past walkouts, when children came to school with smaller and smaller lunches. Many families now have second-income earners to cushion the financial blow.

The big change is ownership. Vale SA, a Brazilian-based mining behemoth, is the new owner in town. The Brazilians are shaking things up: they have strong views on how to run a mining company and deal with workers.

Since taking control in 2006 from Inco Ltd. in a $19.4 billion deal, Vale has slowly overhauled operations with a sharp eye on cost-cutting and maximizing profit.

That change, and the resistance to some of it, is now starkly playing out at the Clarabelle picket line and the entrances to many other Vale Inco operations around the city.

Since the start of the strike in July, the two sides have not returned to the bargaining table. No one on the street, in the shops or other plants raises an eyebrow about the prospect of this walkout surpassing the 261-day strike in 1978-79, the biggest in Canadian history in terms of person days lost.

"This looks like 1978 but worse," says Bertrand.

The company, whose parent continues to post strong profits, is seeking changes so it can make money all the time in an industry notorious for up-and-down business cycles. It wants to reduce bonus incentives and pension plan costs, increase contracting-out and limit job transfers.

Vale says it expects production costs to rise as the mining infrastructure ages and it digs deeper in the Sudbury ground, one of the richest nickel deposits in the world.

"On top of that, the global nickel market is becoming increasingly competitive with world nickel inventories approaching all-time highs," adds Inco spokesperson Cory McPhee.

"It is against that backdrop we are positioning ourselves. We are building a long-term, sustainable future in the nickel business."

The union has remained firm. It refuses to accept concessions at a profitable company marching to the drumbeat of globalization. "It's more about them showing their power," the burly Bertrand says.

Animosity and cynicism toward Vale is rampant among workers. They say the company will pay dearly in future productivity and profits when the strike ends.

Second- and third-generation Inco lifers vow they will never recommend working there to sons, daughters, relatives or friends under the new regime.

Veteran mill labourer Roger St. Amour says Inco had improved labour relations during the past two decades, but the new owners have destroyed all trust.

"Vale is used to treating people poorly in third-world countries and they expect to eventually do the same here, but it's not going to work," he says, standing beside the tent's tree with industrial-looking ornaments and a star on top with the words "Shame on Inco."

Labour relations under the old Inco had matured to the point where the company and union respected each other's positions during strikes, despite inevitable hard feelings. The company never mined or processed ore and the union minimized flare-ups.

But when workers walked off the job in July, Vale jolted the Steelworkers by quickly announcing it would soon start some mine production with salaried staff and other unionized workers not on strike.

The company expanded its work to moving ore to the mill and is now training staff to run the nearby smelter. "In the absence of any willingness by the union to negotiate, we can't allow our operations to sit idle," McPhee says.

One union leader suggested the decision would enrage workers and trigger picket line violence. But seasoned Inco strike watchers say the walkout has been relatively peaceful and a far cry from past disputes, when some workers toted guns on the line. In one strike, a worker drove a trunk full of dynamite to a plant gate in a show of force.

Vale has still gone to court three times, charging that the union and its members are breaking labour laws governing picket-line activity. The company has also fired some workers and this week slapped a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit on seven employees for allegedly defying court orders, threatening people, disrupting production and causing monetary damage.

Although Inco is generating some revenue, it is still losing millions every week. On the other side, the union estimates it is paying out about $650,000 weekly.

The union is paying strikers $200 a week plus life insurance, emergency dental work and prescription drugs. It added a holiday gift of $100 and organized a children's Christmas party.

The union also runs a food bank for needy families and some Sudburians have "adopted" them during the strike.

Business is feeling the effects, but the economic hit is harder on local manufacturers than retailers.

The mining equipment manufacturing sector, which has grown significantly during the past two decades and relies less on Inco than in the past, is still feeling some of the sting, according to Dick DeStefano, executive director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association.

"Some companies have had to cut back," he says. "There is job sharing and layoffs."

Gary Cormier, manager of the Notre Dame Boys furniture and appliance store, says his firm is "holding its own" but that could change dramatically after the Christmas season. "January could be the crusher," he says.

Across the city at a small Home Hardware store, owner Michael Skakoon has noticed no real decline and found that strikers are finding the time to buy his goods for house repairs and renovation projects.

"I've had more guys coming in for household repairs than ever before," he says.

While the community and many businesses generally support the workers' cause, there is an element of indifference to their plight by some people.

They don't feel sorry for workers who earn the city's top industrial wages of $29 an hour, plus periodic big bonuses, and spend freely while they make less.

Mayor John Rodriguez, who has openly supported the strikers, says there is some jealousy and a lack of understanding by other workers, pointing out that everyone in the city benefits when Inco workers are spending freely.

City council unanimously passed a resolution for both sides to return to bargaining before the strike starts causing long-term damage to the city. That was more than two months ago.

Back at strike headquarters, Bertrand says if Inco manages to restart the smelter and smoke rises from the Superstack, the strike will take on a new dimension

"The fight would go up a few levels in terms of anger and all hell could break loose," he says.

"Vale underestimates the strong labour history here and what our forefathers fought for to give us the quality of life we have today.

"We're not giving that up."

Vale Inco files suit against nine striking workers
Posted By CAROL MULLIGAN THE SUDBURY STAR
Vale Inco Ltd. has taken the unprecedented step of suing nine individual striking Steelworkers for damages ranging from $75,000 to $120,000 for alleged actions on picket lines.
The strikers have been served with statements of claim for blockading, harassment and intimidation and other picket-line behaviour, which Vale Inco says cost the company in terms of lost production.
The union is not named in the lawsuits.
The lawsuits contain allegations that have not be proven in court.
More than 3,050 members of United Steelworkers Local 6500 have been on strike against Vale Inco since July 13. Since then, Vale Inco has resumed partial production at some of its operations.
Lawyer Brian Shell, who has been retained to represent the strikers, says he has never seen another case like this in 28 years of practising labour law.
He could not discuss specifics of the lawsuits, but Shell spoke about the concept of a company initiating civil lawsuits against employees it believes "have engaged in conduct the company thinks triggers personal liability."
Normally, an employer expresses disapproval of striking employees' actions by disciplining or even firing them, he said.
When the labour dispute is resolved, those warnings or firings are often resolved in back-to-work protocol.
"That's the general way most civilized companies and unions in Ontario manage these kinds of issues," said Shell.
Picket lines are "lightning rods for emotion and for the expression of free speech," he said. "Sometimes, along with free speech, goes emotional baggage where people are upset they're on strike."
When a company operates without its striking workforce and "seems to not be interested in engaging in collective bargaining," it is not surprising "picket-line excesses" occur, he said.
Strikers can be "inflamed" by the hiring of security forces, so "sometimes people lose their cool. There are lots of reasons. So, things happen on picket lines that normally well-behaved fathers don't do in their living rooms," said Shell.
Most striking Steelworkers are "well-behaved fathers and brothers and sons and uncles and nephews," he said.
Vale Inco spokesman Steve Ball agreed with that assessment.
"The majority of our employees exercise their right to picket in a lawful manner," Ball said.
"Only a few individuals have chosen to act in ways we believe are clearly inapproriate."
Strikers cannot hide "behind their union and believe that in a labour dispute the actions they choose to undertake can be ... hidden behind the fact they are in a strike situation," said Ball.
Vale Inco has already disciplined and fired a few employees for what it called bad picket-line behaviour.
When asked why the company chose to file civil suits against these strikers, Ball said Vale Inco is instituting claims for monetary damages "against people we have very clear cases against.
"Some of these people have even openly acknowledged they're violating the law in the court order and despite having that knowledge, they're choosing to do so anyway."
Vale Inco officials believe filing for monetary damages is "the right course of action," Ball said.
Shell doesn't buy it. He said a company could sue individual employees, most of whom have at least 20 years' service, because the $75,000 or so it hopes to recover from each "really makes a difference between life and death" financially.
A second possibility is an employer wanting to demonstrate "it just won't take it anymore ... these delays on the picket line are too much and they're a bunch of militants out there who we just have to discipline and we have to tell our parents in Toronto and Sao Paulo, Brazil, that we won't take it anymore.
"So, we're going to show our teeth and we're going to snap at these little mosquitoes running around our picket line," he speculated.
Shell doesn't believe that is behind the lawsuits.
The "labour relations reason" underlying a tactic such as this is to undermine solidarity on the picket line. That's what Shell suggests is at play.
But he doesn't believe it will be effective against Steelworkers and said it could even be counter-productive.
"Instead of calming picket lines by removing alleged irritants ... it's going to say to everybody that this company is using strategies and tactics that are beyond the pale ... therefore, the company is behaving like an arrogant brute."
Shell said he hoped the lawsuits don't require defence, but will be dealt with in "the normal way."
That would be for both parties to return to collective bargaining, strike a deal, "kiss and make up ... apologize to each other for not being nice to each other for six months," then go back to work and produce nickel.
"That's what the normal way is," he said.
To use the threat of lawsuits to push people away from the picket line is a "mean, terrible, horrible tactic that I believe will backfire," said Shell.
Ball said Vale Inco can accept that USW has activists whose behaviour falls within "what is being imposed in terms of legal requirements of the law and the court orders (injunctions)."
But he said it's not OK "to be an activist outside of what the courts have determined is allowed and isn't allowed, so we are going to take a course of action."
Said Ball: "It's not a case of trying to target certain people; by their actions, they are targeting themselves and we will take action against those people."
USW Local 6500 vice-president Rick Bertrand said his union is backing the strikers being sued "110%" and called the lawsuits "intimidation against our members."
Coming right before Christmas, the statements of claim are adding more stress to families already under pressure.
"They're trying to keep our more militant people off the picket line," said Bertrand.

Vale Letter Opts for Mischief and Misrepresentation Rather than Unconditional Bargaining
Published: December 11, 2009
Posted in: News, Release
Steelworkers Call for Immediate, Unconditional Return to Negotiations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sudbury, 11 Dec, 2009 – In a letter released today, Vale Inco has attempted to cause mischief and confusion in the five month-old strike at the Canadian operations.

Vale’s letter suggests it is not yet prepared to abandon its campaign of misrepresentation, intimidation and provocation and finally accept that the company and union ultimately have to sit down and talk, with no preconditions.

“The union’s good-faith position – no preconditions for a return to bargaining – has been made clear to the company and to a provincial mediator,” said USW Local 6500 President John Fera.

“We are publicly reiterating our position today because Vale’s letter attempts to misrepresent our willingness to resume meaningful discussions,” Fera said.

“We are ready and willing to get back to the bargaining today, unconditionally. Given the impact this dispute is having on our working families and our community as a whole, it is incumbent on the union and the company to drop all preconditions and start talking to each other again.

“Unfortunately, Vale Inco continues to stick by its preconditions and its argument that it needs concessions to maintain its ‘sustainability,’ when its demands such as cutting the nickel bonus do not affect its sustainability whatsoever. Vale had to win a bidding war to purchase this profitable company. Inco made profits each year with nickel prices lower than today’s. Vale has reaped huge profits under the current contract. No one can say Sudbury’s rich nickel mines are not sustainable.”

The Vale letter also states that, if a new collective agreement is not reached, the company will “move forward with the business and create the long-term future that will benefit us all.”

“This statement is another, not-so-subtle attempt to try and intimidate and provoke our members and the community and create unnecessary anxiety for working families and our community,” said Leo W. Gerard, USW International President.

“We are all aware of Vale’s unprecedented attempts to recruit scabs to try to resume operations during the strike,” Gerard said.

“Our community deserves better than intimidation, provocation and deception. Vale must show the same good faith and responsibility being pledged by the Steelworkers – we must start negotiating again, without preconditions.”

The Vale Inco letter also takes issue with the USW’s immensely successful, global solidarity campaign, which has shone an international spotlight on Vale’s labour relations, environmental and corporate accountability record around the world including our communities.

“Instead of whining and complaining that their image is being tarnished and its Canadian workers are receiving unprecedented support around the world, Vale should turn its attention to resolving this strike,” Gerard said.

“There has never been an unwillingness to bargain on our part,” noted Wayne Fraser, USW District 6 Director.

“Given the economic times, we came to the table willing to bargain and to explore options that could help the company and workers alike, Fraser said. “We demonstrated good faith by offering to extend our old contract for another year while pursuing a fair deal. Five months into this strike, we are still ready to negotiate.”

For updates and information on the USW Vale Inco strike, visit FairDealNow.ca.

The strike at Vale Inco in Sudbury has been going on since July. No talks are scheduled. The company is using salaried workers and non-union workers to operate some mines. It is reported that people who have never worked underground have no choice if they want a job.
More ominous is the trend by companies under siege like Vale to immediately attack a soft target -- retirees. A mere $5 top-up to the pensions of the most aged retirees and widows has been cancelled.
Vale also wants a three-year wage freeze, the abolition of a defined benefit pension program for new hires, and a cap to the bonus tied to nickel prices.
Vale demands that the bonus threshold be raised to near impossible price targets.
Sources tell me that Vale is not interested in what the union wants, and presents only its demands, which are non negotiable. This pattern of negotiation is totally alien and un-Canadian and must be resisted as it will lead to similar confrontations at other Canadian companies taken over by foreigners.
This is what I call the Vale Threat. I hope I am wrong, but I see this strike as the test ground for Essar (contract up in July 2010), the former Falconbridge (Xstrata) contract up in February 2010, and ongoing struggles with U. S. Steel Stelco.
Dofasco is owned by Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steel company.
The company invited union organizers to investigate starting a union, a dramatic step. The union executives quickly dropped the idea after determining there was significant opposition to forming a union.
Ipsco is owned by SSAB Svenskt Stal AB. Sweden has a good history of union relations so there should be good news from the new owners.
The problem is Vale.
Vale is Brazilian and the second- largest mining company in the world. Roger Agnelli, CEO of Vale Overseas, says Vale is locked in cutthroat competition with its global rivals, and insists that if its operations are to be sustainable in all pricing cycles, it must impose a "unified approach to compensation" across the globe. This requires that Canadian workers become more competitive with workers in less developed countries.

In plain English, Vale wants Canadian workers to be paid at the rates of workers in poorer countries. It is imposing Third-World standards on Canadians.
Thanks to the collusion with the federal and provincial governments, which encouraged these takeovers in 2006 and 2007, and have adopted a hands-off attitude to the Vale dispute, Vale feels free to operate in Canada with impunity and deliberate disregard for Canadian labour laws.
I see the Vale strike continuing for a year and very few people caring about it until they are affected when their own companies are on strike.
U. S. Steel Stelco is trying to follow the American pattern of turning over retirees to the wolves and disregarding legacy obligations. Remember Enron.
The pattern is clear, and I suspect the foreign companies are colluding (illegal) and watching the Vale strike.
As a retiree, I see future negotiations targeting retirees. Retirees' benefits are threefold: pension, major medical, and drug plan.
I can see these companies saying, which of these three are you going to give up as we intend to fund only two of them?
I think the government should immediately follow the example of the Quebec government, which seized the pension assets of Nortel, which had been tampering with the funds. The Quebec government said it would administer the funds for the retirees. Pension money belongs to the retirees, not the company to dip into whenever it feels.
There is also an ominous trend to the U. S. 401(k) pension plans, called defined contributions instead of the Canadian-defined benefits. The risks all fall on the retiree, the pension cost is shared (employee five per cent, company 10 per cent), no guaranteed benefit level at
retirement, the employer no longer has the liability of paying the pension benefits.
I call upon all retirees and current employees to watch the Vale situation closely and monitor any future contract negotiations with their own companies -- Essar, Falconbridge Xstrata, and Stelco.
Gene Monin is a member of The Sault Star editorial board.
Article ID# 2197841