Niobec strike settled (August 20, 2001)

Hourly rated employees at the Niobec niobium mine in the Lac St.-Jean area of Quebec have returned to work following a 9-day strike. Owners Cambior (CBJ-T) and Mazarin (MAZ-T) reached an agreement with the United Steel Workers.

The new contract lasts three years to the end of April 2004. It covers 195 hourly rated employees who will get increases of 3% in the first two years of the contract and 2.5% in the last year. The workforce had been without a contract since May, and the first-year raise is retroactive to the beginning of the new contract period.

Mazarin operates the mine and Cambior markets the ferroniobium alloy produced. Cambior spokesman Robert LaValliere says the strike will have no effect on revenue as inventory covered deliveries.