Inco to meet with union on underground proposal

Nickel giant Inco (TSE) will meet with union officials at its Sudbury, Ont., operations on Jan. 4 to discuss a proposal that would shift 85 unionized and non-unionized office workers into underground jobs, says Bob Purcell, a company spokesman.

“(Inco Chairman) Michael Sopko spoke with (United Steelworkers of America Director) Leo Gerard,” said Purcell. “They decided it would be a good idea if Inco’s people met with the union people.”

Jan 4. is the day Sudbury employees return to work after a 3-week Christmas shutdown.

But Purcell added that although Inco would listen to alternatives, it has no intention of scrapping the proposal. “Our offer still stands,” he said. Inco clashed with leaders of the Steelworkers Local 6600 after telling some administrative staff they must work underground or face layoffs. Gerard called the ultimatum a form of revenge against women who had recently challenged Inco’s pay equity plan. They became unionized employees along with 700 other office and technical employees at the Sudbury operations in 1991. But Purcell challenged that argument. “The whole motivation for this action is that we have an imbalance in our Copper Cliff operations,” he said. “We have fewer workers underground than we could use.”

Purcell said the imbalance was created by Inco’s recent voluntary retirement plan, which was designed to eliminate 400 jobs.

He said Inco had not yet decided if workers who choose to be laid off rather than work underground would be offered severance packages.

The employees who remain with the company will be trained in jobs ranging from bolt riveting to conveyer maintenance, or “anything we need,” he said. “The whole way this has been handled was inappropriate, unacceptable and demeaning,” said union leader Wayne Fraser, noting that all 58 office workers who are also members of the Steelworkers union had agreed to resist Inco’s proposal.

By 1995, Inco plans to lay off 1,500 workers from its 7,000-strong workforce.