Vale Inco Latest: Talks Underway

Talks to end the long running and bitter dispute between the USW and Vale Inco are underway.

Unite and Workers Uniting have been supporting over 3000 USW members on strike in Canada.

The mediated talks between United Steelworkers and Vale Inco Ltd. will continue all weekend in Toronto.

Officers of USW Locals 6500 in Sudbury and 6200 in Port Colborne and negotiators for Vale Inco are still involved in discussions with an independent arbitrator.

USW staff representative Myles Sullivan confirmed talks will continue and would only say that his union and Vale Inco "hope to work closely" with Burkett over the weekend.

About 3,000 production and maintenance workers in Sudbury and another 130 in Port Colborne have been on strike over pensions, nickel bonuses and seniority transfer rights since July 13th.

There had been no formal talks between the formal parties until it was announced last week the parties they had sought the assistance of Burkett, a much sought after arbitrator-mediator, to engage in exploratory talks.

The two sides met last weekend, then adjourned for two days so the mediator could fulfil other commitments on his calendar.

Talks resumed Wednesday and continued Thursday.

Former executive board members of USW Local 6500 were speculating this week that exploratory talks had likely moved on to bargaining.

The entire bargaining committee for USW Local 6500 and Local 6200 has been in Toronto for more than a week.

Originally, only a few members of Vale Inco's bargaining team were in Toronto, but company spokesman Steve Ball told The Star that more members had joined their colleagues in recent days.

USW's bargaining committee is being headed by USW District 6 director Wayne Fraser, who was installed on the union's international board Monday. Well-known Toronto labour lawyer Harvey Beresford is lead negotiator for Vale Inco.

The mediator, who has worked with both the parties before, has issued a complete media blackout, which is customary when talks are down to the wire.

USW Local 6500 president John Fera said that the nature of the talks was very "sensitive" so both parties were honouring the blackout.