SEPT-ÎLES – A tentative agreement was reached this morning between the negotiating committee of United Steelworkers (Syndicat des Métallos) Local 6254 and the Société ferroviaire et portuaire de Pointe-Noire (SFP Pointe-Noire) on a first collective agreement since the company’s creation in 2016.
Steelworkers Local 6254 members will be presented will details of the tentative agreement and will hold a ratification vote on the proposed contract in coming weeks. Contract negotiations had been ongoing throughout the past year.
“The negotiating committee believes it has reached a satisfactory agreement and will recommend that the members accept it,” said Local 6254 President Robert Roy.
If ratified, this would be the first collective agreement at the new SFP Pointe-Noire, as the previous agreement in place was with Cliffs Natural Resources, which was taken over by SFP Pointe-Noire in 2016.
The 159 workers at SFP Pointe-Noire will be asked to vote on the terms of the tentative agreement in the near future.
“The negotiating committee’s wish is to hold a physical meeting, in compliance with health regulations. However, we will have to wait to see how the current restrictions change, beyond Feb. 8, to determine to what extent this will be possible,” said Steelworkers staff representative Dany Maltais.
In the meantime, the parties are finalizing the text of the tentative agreement for presentation to members.
SFP Pointe-Noire’s operations, located near Sept-Îles on Quebec’s North Shore, include railway services for area mining companies, an iron ore pelletizing plant and transhipment facilities.
The United Steelworkers/Syndicat des Métallos, an affiliate of the Quebec Federation of Labour, is the largest private-sector union in Quebec. It represents more than 60,000 workers in all economic sectors.
Clairandrée Cauchy, Syndicat des Métallos Communications, 514-774-4001, ccauchy@metallos.ca
Syndicat des Métallos Sept-Îles office, 418-962-2041
First published on globeandmail.com on October 22, 2026 By Marty Warren, Special to the Globe and Mail Marty Warren, the Canadian national director of the United Steelworkers union. As I write, more workers at Hamilton’s Stelco steel mill are being laid off. In all, the plant’s U.S. owner, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., will cut up to 500 jobs. This, […]
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