Why is the United Steelworkers providing Vale strikers only poverty-level strike pay?
July 1 marked one month since 2,450 workers at Vale’s Sudbury, Ontario mining and processing complex went on strike.
Workers have thus far rejected two concessions-filled contract offers. The first of these was unanimously recommended to them by the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 bargaining committee. The most recent was voted down 10 days into the strike, with a decisive 87 percent of workers voting to reject in a ballot in which 84 percent of the strikers participated. Recognizing the anger and militancy among the workers, the USW felt compelled to call for Vale’s second offer to be rejected, even though it had advised acceptance of essentially the same terms less than two weeks earlier.