Posted By CAROL MULLIGAN, THE SUDBURY STAR


The man in charge of co-ordinating picket-line issues for striking United Steelworkers Local 6500 says he is proud of the union's members for conducting themselves so well on picket lines.

Pascal Boucher is crediting more than 3,050 striking production and maintenance workers for their composure and professionalism while picketing.

Strikers are managing themselves as best they can according to the terms of a picket-line injunction until they return to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Dec. 9, said Local 6500's chief steward.

That is despite Vale Inco Ltd. "orchestrating" mass arrivals of vehicles entering its facilities when the company could be staggering those arrivals.

The original picket line protocol, established July 29 by Justice John Poupore, stipulated strikers can delay vehicles entering Vale Inco plants from 12 to 15 minutes depending on the time of day.

But there is still disagreement around when the clock should start ticking, depending on where vehicles are in lineups.

USW Local 6500 president John Fera said he was disappointed with Justice Robbie's ruling Saturday that the limit applies to a group of vehicles when they arrive.

Vale Inco took the union and 19 strikers to court for a fourth time Friday, citing a number of picket-line offences alleged to have occurred. Several witnesses were heard, but more will testify when the legal proceeding continues Dec. 9.

More than 3,050 production and maintenance workers have been on strike since July 13 over proposed pension changes, cuts to their nickel bonus and seniority transfer rights.

Boucher said Poupore's original injunction encouraged strikers and Vale Inco personnel to try to resolve their disagreements at the source.

Picket captains have been discussing complaints with Vale Inco marshals, some of them employees of AFI International Group Inc., a third-party security firm that specializes in labour disputes. The problem, said Boucher, is often those complaints don't go anywhere.


Take, for instance, complaints about a shortage of wood for fire barrels at picket lines. Strikers have often begun delaying vehicles longer than the injunction allows because Vale Inco is not supplying wood, as required in the injunction.

Vale Inco spokesman Steve Ball has said the company is only required to provide scrap wood and sometimes there is none available.

Boucher isn't buying that excuse because he said Vale Inco has piles of wooden palettes and construction lumber scraps stored in several locations.

It is just one of the ways Vale Inco is trying to provoke strikers, charged Boucher.

A lot of you have been asking about Vale Inco’s recent posting on the www.valeinconegotiations.com website about s.80 of the Labour Relations Act.

This is the right-to-scablaw. If you want to be a scab, you have the ˜right’ to scab, and Vale Inco is more than happy to tell you about it.

The law says that if you want to be a scab, and you make an application under s.80 within 6 months from the start of the strike,

Vale Inco is obliged to hire you as a scab. However, this is the deal if you make an application to scab under s.80 of the Labour Relations Act:

1) You get to go back to work as a scab.

2) The Act says that the terms of your employment are agreed as between employer and individual employee. In effect, this means that Vale Inco can dictate the terms of your
employment.

3) Vale Inco can change the terms of your employment at any time.

4) You will not have a union, nor will you have access to an arbitration, seniority or just cause for discharge provisions of the collective agreement. YOU WILL HAVE NO RIGHTS.

5) Did we mention that you become a scab? You will be attacking your Union, your neighbours and your community and undermining the strike.

Our strike is working. The winter is coming, and the recent Vale Inco web posting stinks of desperation...