The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The decision by the Ontario Labour Relations Board to directly send the discharges of eight Steelworkers to arbitration is one of the most far-reaching made by the board in a decade, said United Steelworkers lawyer Brian Shell.

The board ruled in favour of the union Friday and is directing Vale to enter into arbitration to decide the fate of eight men fired during United Steelworkers’ bitter year-long strike against Vale.

Shell said the decision goes to the core of collective bargaining, “the core of the right to strike and to the core of the dig-n ity unionized workers are entitled to by joining a union, by having a bargaining agent and by having that bargaining agent do collective bargaining for them.

“It goes right to the heart of the entire system of labour relations,” Shell said. Vale has had little to say about Friday’s decision other than to release this statement Saturday afternoon that its team continues to “review and assess” the board’s 29-page decision. Read the rest of this entry »

Media release

Labour Board Ruling Vindicates Steelworkers In Case of Fired Employees
SUDBURY, 24 February, 2012 – Mining giant Vale engaged in “patently unreasonable” conduct and violated provincial labour law by firing nine Sudbury workers without recourse to arbitration, the Ontario Labour Relations Board has ruled.

“This ruling is another concrete example of Vale’s blatant disregard for workers’ rights, for our laws and for our country’s labour relations traditions and culture,” said United Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard.

“This is a major victory for our union, for the working families who have been adversely affected by Vale’s unlawful conduct, and for unionized workers throughout the province,” said USW Local 6500 President Rick Bertrand.

“It is shameful that the affected families have suffered in limbo for more than two years due to Vale’s illegal decision to deny workers their right to independent arbitration,” Bertrand said. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Brian Miller has lived in Sudbury since 1979, but, for the last two years, he has felt like an outcast. Miller, 42, was one of nine Steelworkers fired during the union’s year-long strike against Vale Ltd. from July 2009-2010. (One retired after the strike.)

Miller worked his last shift as a development miner at Frood Mine on May 28, 2009. He had 13 years with the company when his union went on strike July 13 of that year.

He was fired Feb. 23, 2010, in the midst of the most bitter labour dispute to rock the Nickel City in decades.

Miller was pleased to learn Friday the Ontario Labour Relations Board had ruled his dismissal, and those of Steelworkers Ron Breault, Mike Courchesne, Adam Cowie, Dan Labelle, Mike French, Jason Patterson and Patrick Veinot, will go to arbitration. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A provincial arbitrator will decide if the firings of eight Steelworkers during their yearlong strike against Vale Ltd. were justified after a ruling Friday by the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

The board directed arbitration of the men’s dismissals on a just cause standard more than two years after their union, United Steelworkers, filed a bad-faith bargaining complaint against the Brazil-based miner.

The original complaint was filed Jan. 13, 2010, at the six-month mark of a bitter strike by 3,400 USW members in Sudbury and Port Colborne.

The complaint changed during the two years from one about Vale refusing to collectively bargain to whether the firings of nine men during the strike should be sent to arbitration.

(One of the fired men retired at the end of the strike.) Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Vale Ltd. is ramping up to resume production at Copper Cliff Mine this weekend, almost three weeks after production was halted at all five Sudbury mines after a Jan. 29 fatal accident at Coleman Mine in Levack.

The mines were closed for a safety pause after experienced development miner Stephen Perry, 47, was killed while operating machinery at the 4,215-foot level of the main ore body at Coleman.

The company and its employees, both union and non-union, have been working together since Perry’s death to ensure the mines are safe for about 1,550 production and maintenance workers when they return.

Vale’s Angie Robson said she expects most of the company’s mines will be back in production by the end of next week. “At Creighton Mine, we are working on some maintenance of our shaft, and expect to start production there by the last week of February,” said Robson. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Vale’s five Sudbury mines should be back in production by the end of next week, says a company spokeswoman.

Production at the mines was halted Jan. 30 after an experienced development miner, Stephen Perry, was killed on the job at Coleman Mine on Jan. 29.

Since then, Vale has been working with employees to ensure all five mines in Sudbury — Coleman, Creighton, Stobie, Garson and Copper Cliff — are safe places for production and maintenance employees to return to work.

“Production will start resuming at our mines as safety issues are addressed and completed,” Vale’s Angie Robson said Wednesday. “We expect that by the end of next week, most of our mines will be back into production.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

As a memorial mass is being said today for a veteran miner killed on the job, crews will start returning to five Vale mines where production was suspended after the fatality.

Stephen Perry, 47, died Sunday afternoon after being struck by rock while working on a piece of loading equipment at the 4,215-foot level of the main ore body at Coleman Mine in Levack. Hundreds of people, including about 45 family members from his native Newfoundland, were expected to attend the 10 a.m. service.

About 1,550 production and maintenance workers have been off the job, with pay, since Perry was killed. While some will start returning to work, the focus will remain on safety and not production, said Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson.

Returning workers will be “focused on tasks associated with safety and risk management, and not production-related work,” said Robson. “There is still no timeline on when our mines will return to production.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

The month of January closed out with Vale having temporarily halted all underground mining at its five nickel mines in Sudbury, Ont., following the death of a miner at the Coleman mine on Jan. 29.

Miner Stephen Perry, 47, was working on the 4,215-ft. level when he was struck by “what appears to be a displacement of material or rock from the development face in the main orebody,” commented Kelly Strong, Vale’s North Atlantic vice-president of mining and milling, in an early Jan. 30 news conference.

Perry was brought to surface where he was pronounced dead by medical personnel, said Strong, who extended his condolences to the miner’s family and friends. He had been with the company for 16 years. This is the fourth fatality in seven months at Vale’s Canadian operations, and the third death at the company’s Sudbury mines. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

United Steelworkers Local 6500 and Vale Ltd. have agreed to conduct a joint investigation into the death of veteran miner Stephen Perry at Coleman Mine on Sunday.

Six people — three from the company and three from the union — will meet Thursday to begin work on the investigation into the fatal accident.

The shutdown at Vale’s five Sudbury mines will continue so the focus remains squarely on safety, and not on production, said Angie Robson. Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand said he was happy the two sides agreed to work together.

“Hopefully, things will be much better here on in,” in terms of both safety and labour relations, said Bertrand.

Mine production was halted Sunday after Perry, 47, was killed while operating a loader at the 4,215-foot level of the Coleman shaft of the main order body at mine in Levack. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The tragedy of death underground has revisited Sudbury in a manner that leaves all of us asking how this could happen again at a company that has more than 100 years of experience in mining.

Stephen Perry, 47, a 16-year miner at Vale, died at the 4,215-foot level at Coleman Mine in Levack on Sunday after he was struck by loose rock while he was working at a development heading.

The incident happened just days after Vale officials presented their findings about the deaths in June of two miners, Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram, after they were overcome by 350 tonnes of muck and sand while they were working at the 3,000-foot level of Stobie Mine.

Vale has suspended all five of its underground mining operations, affecting more than 1,500 workers, in order to come up with plans to ensure a safe working environment. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A memorial mass will be held Friday at 10 a.m. at Christ the King Church for Stephen Perry, who was killed Sunday afternoon on the job at Coleman Mine in Levack.

Perry was from Corner Brook, Nfld., but had worked with Inco and Vale for 16 years. Vale vice-president Kelly Strong called Perry a skilled and experienced miner who was respected by his colleagues. Family in Newfoundland said he was a kind and giving man, who would do anything to help someone in need.

Perry is survived by a daughter and several siblings.

Vale suspended operations at all five Sudbury mines after Perry was killed working on a piece of machinery to load blasting equipment to open up the 4,215-foot heading off the Coleman shaft in the main ore body.

The Ontario Ministry of Labour and Greater Sudbury Police Service have been at the site beginning their investigations. Vale and the union representing Perry, United Steelworkers Local 6500, will also conduct investigations. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Vale Ltd. has temporarily suspended operations at its five Sudbury mines as the company steps back, pauses and focuses on a plan to make its operations safer after an experienced miner was killed Sunday at Coleman Mine.

Kelly Strong, vice-president of mining and milling for Vale, said 1,550 miners are off the job, with pay, while Vale managers meet with the joint health and safety committee to devise an action plan before the mines are reopened.

Until that plan is drafted, Strong couldn’t predict when the mines would reopen. It’s the first time in the 11 years he has been with Vale that it has suspended operations at all mines after a fatality at one of them, he said.

Vale employs 400 production and maintenance workers at its Coleman and Stobie mines, 350 at Creighton Mine, and 200 at each of Garson and Copper Cliff mines. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The president of the union representing the miner killed Sunday at Coleman Mine was as angry Monday as he was sad that a member of United Steelworkers Local 6500 had been killed on the job.

While his union was expressing its heartfelt condolences to the miner’s family, Rick Bertrand was feeling mixed emotions, as were many of his members. “A big part of it is anger, (I’m) very angry,” Bertrand said Monday at the new Steelworkers’ Hall at 66 Brady St.

“Four fatalities in seven months is unacceptable … this has got to stop,” said Bertrand. Two Local 6500 members, Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, were killed June 8 of last year at Stobie Mine.

Another Steelworker, a member of USW Local 6166 in Thompson, Man., died in October, 12 days after he fell down a mine shaft while operating a scoop tram. Greg Leason, 51, had 23 years with Inco and Vale. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The Ministry of Labour has issued two requirements of Vale Ltd. after the death of a 16-year employee early Sunday afternoon at the 4,215-foot level at Coleman Mine in Levack.

The first requirement is “don’t disturb the scene,” said ministry spokesman Matt Blajer. The ministry has also asked for a number of documents, such as training records and equipment information. Two ministry inspectors responded Sunday after the fatality was reported. Monday, they called in a ministry ground control engineer to help.

Blajer said the ministry was told the miner was “loading the face of the rock with explosives from a man basket when the incident occurred.” Blajer identified the area as the 4215 Level West T1 Cut 5.

The ministry is also asking Vale for its plans for the development of the heading at 36 West T1 Cut 5, he said. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Vale has confirmed that an employee was killed by falling rock at Coleman Mine on Sunday.

“Vale regretfully announces that an employee was fatally injured this afternoon while working underground in the main ore body at the 4,215-foot level of the company’s Coleman Mine in Levack due to what appears to be some displacement of material from a development heading,” the company said in a release.

“The employee was found and brought to surface, where he was subsequently pronounced dead by medical authorities.”  Vale said the immediate family has been notified, but the name of the employee is being withheld pending completion of the notification process.

The employee was 47 and had worked at the company for 16 years. Read the rest of this entry »