Your questions answered!

Thank you to everyone. We are feeling the strong support these past 24 hours. 

We have also received some really good and honest questions. Please keep them coming! You deserve the facts before making this important choice. We don’t have the ability like the company to contact everyone with the answers so please feel free to share the answers so that all co-workers can make their own choice based on information from both sides. 

Q. When considering the collective agreement, will everything go back to a clean slate and all of our wages, benefits, bonuses, and raises be negotiated, or will the current structure be the baseline?

A. Because an application for certification has been filed at the Newfoundland and Labrador Labour Board on behalf of the Vale Long Harbour employees, the Newfoundland Labour Relations Act (LRA)   places a protective and important “statutory freeze” on the terms and conditions of employment of the employees in the bargaining unit.

The LRA provides this protection so that your current conditions serve as a starting point for collective bargaining. Any further changes would then be subject to the approval of the employees in the bargaining unit when you ratify your first collective agreement.

Under the provisions of the LRA, this freeze is broadly worded and applies to wages and any other term or condition of employment and any right, privilege or duty of the employer or the employees.  It means that Vale cannot unilaterally change terms or conditions of employment during the statutory freeze.  

If Vale employees vote in favour of representation by the USW, your current terms and conditions will be the baseline and framework that your bargaining committee, with USW backup and expertise, will work from in negotiations.

The huge benefit of having your working terms and conditions spelled out in a new collective agreement is that Vale will no longer be able to change those terms and conditions whenever it  feels like it. It means you will have an employer that is accountable to you and your co-workers. If Vale management violates any provisions of the collective agreement they will be liable through your new grievance and arbitration process.

For example: At Vale’s Sudbury operation, the company violated the “paid lunch” provision of the USW collective agreement.  The union grieved the violation and as a result Vale paid approximately $1.4 million retroactively back to its employees for violating the contract.

Q. Does seniority start from our hire date or the date of inception of the union and how would it work with respect to the people within the same wave – if hire date is the determining factor and multiple people have the same hire date, how will seniority then be determined?

A. Your goal in bargaining would be to ensure that seniority is based from the date of hire.  Collective agreements differ around how a ‘tie’ would be settled if employees shared the same seniority date.   For example, in one Vale operation a tie is broken by a coin toss and at another it’s determined by the employee number assigned by the company on the date of hire. It will depend in part on what workers choose during negotiations. 

Q. How will this affect the HPWS system that we currently are working towards – meaning, will we lose the opportunity to rotate through multiple areas and perform multiple jobs in multiple circuits? Most importantly, will we then be forced to stay in the same position for the entirety of our careers here?

A. Your goal in bargaining would be to ensure that the most positive method of job rotation and job postings will be set out in writing in your collective agreement. If you like the current HPWS system, you will want to get it down in black and white in your new collective agreement.  The goal is to give workers true protection from being condemned to do their same job without any chance of advancement. 

Without an enforceable collective agreement, Vale’s promises are not required to be kept, just like the ever moving bar of production targets for your AIP bonus to pay out or the upcoming changes to your benefits.  Protection Targets and Benefits are protected at all other Canadian Vale sites because workers there have the protection of a collective agreement and the legal backing of the United Steelworkers.

Q. There are multiple temporary uplift positions that technicians are currently in, in this case, once the technicians return to their tech roles, how is their seniority determined? Will it be based on their hire dates, or the date that they return as technicians?

A. This subject is addressed different ways in various agreements. In some agreements temporary  promotions and or specialty training does not affect the outcome of seniority.   It will depend in part on the goals and interests of Vale workers as you engage in collective bargaining.

Q. Do they need to give everyone (All four shifts), the opportunity to be on shift when the vote takes place?

A. The Newfoundland and Labrador Labour Board has decided that your confidential, secret ballot vote will take place today (Wednesday), Thursday and Friday. For more details about times and locations click here.  Vale is required by law to ensure employees have time to vote. No one will ever know how you voted and the vote is run by officials of the Labour Board.

In order for you and your employees to win union representation, a majority of 50% plus one or more of employees in the bargaining unit must vote in favour. 

However, if at least 70% of the employees in the bargaining unit cast a ballot, you will win union representation if a majority of those voting have voted in favour of the union.

If you or your fellow employees have any other questions, please feel free to send them to us and we will get back to you quickly. Email us: vale@usw.ca Or call Amanda at (902) 219-3544 or Al at 685-8095

You can also subscribe to our text message info alert system. If you aren’t on it text VALE to the number 32-32-3.

Al at 685-8095

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