Big thank you to everyone who has voted so far. If you haven’t voted, please do so! Click here for the details on where and when to vote today and tomorrow.
We’ve received questions from your co-workers regarding three big rumours that were being spread. Here are the responses we sent people:
False. Your current wages and terms of employment are frozen until YOU accept a collective agreement. Don’t take our word for it. It is the law in Newfoundland and Labrador.
In every VALE plant except long harbour, the same types of wages and bonuses are protected and in writing in each agreement that those workers have negotiated because they have formed a Union.
False. The reason that Long Harbour employees benefit from those bonuses are because your unionized colleagues have negotiated them.
Why is it that you are not at the rate that you were promised? Why does the trigger for your AIP keep moving? Because it’s not in writing… At all other VALE plants management is 100% accountable to their workers because it is spelled out in their contract, the collective agreement.
All current terms and conditions of employment are frozen and remember, nobody pays Union dues until you have a contract that YOU are satisfied with. What do you have to lose?
All the rumours that you hear about strikes are false. Strikes happen only when the workers at that workplace decide to strike with a vote by the membership.
The reality is that 98% of all contracts are settled without a strike.
The bottom line is that this vote is your choice. It is about your future. Please question the information being circulated in the rumour mill. Feel free to verify it with us. Employers and their little favorites like the spread rumours because they don’t want workers to have a legal voice. That is why the company is campaigning for a NO vote. Flexibility is the currency of an employer and they never want to lose that.
Big thanks to the Vale co-workers who called or emailed us with their questions.
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