Strike ends at Brunswick as union accepts contract offer

The long strike at Brunswick Mining & Smelting’s (TSE) lead-zinc mine smelter operations in New Brunswick ended recently when employees voted to accept a new 43-month wage contract.

Representatives of the 1,100 mine and 440 smelter workers claimed they had made substantial gains during a 10-month and often bitter strike which has crippled the local economy and stymied the world’s largest zinc mine.

“It’s nothing to do somersaults over, but it’s an agreement we can live with,” said Paul Gagnon, financial secretary of Local 5385 of the United Steelworkers of America, the union that represents the mine workers.

He said the new contract includes a $2.80-per-hour wage increase over the life of the deal. That represents an increase of roughly 30% on the previous basic wage rate of $13.36 per hour.

Scheduled to expire February, 1994, the contract also increases employee pension rates by $16 per month for every year served to $25 initially and $27 in 1992 and allows employees to retire after 20 years of service.

In case of a workforce reduction, the contract includes a special early retirement provision allowing employees to retire at the age of 55.

While the union also obtained a commitment from the company that it won’t combine trades over the life of the contract, a mechanism has been put in place to deal with any disputes over job jurisdictions.

“Both the company and the union had legitimate concerns over competitiveness, and individual security,” said John Carrington, president and chief operating officer of Brunswick Mining & Smelting. “Our intention is to work on both these matters in the months and years ahead,” he said.

A 64.6% owned subsidiary of Toronto-based Noranda (TSE), Brunswick Mining has also agreed to bring back two mine employees who were discharged after the strike and there will be no repercussions stemming from anything that occurred during the work stoppage, according to Gagnon.

Meanwhile, Brunswick reported a net loss of $4.3 million or 11 cents per share in the first three months of 1991 compared to a profit of $7.3 million or 19 cents a share in the equivalent 1990 quarter. First-quarter revenues declined to $21.4 million from $89.3 million a year ago.

Brunswick attributed the quarterly loss to the fact that the mine was operating at only 30% of capacity. Brunswick Mining & Smelting (TSE) 3 months ended Mar. 31 1991 1990 Revenue $21,431 $89,316 Net earnings (loss) (4,314) 7,262

per share (0.11) 0.19