The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
Some might call it a Christmas miracle.
Representatives from Vale Ltd. and United Steelworkers Local 6500 held a joint news conference Wednesday to signal their intention to work together to settle a new collective bargaining agreement before the current one expires May 31, 2015.
The fact it was held at the Steelworkers’ Hall was unprecedented for a company and a union who were involved in an acrimonious, year-long strike from July 2009 to July 2010.
Both sides want to put that troubled past behind them and move forward so history doesn’t repeat itself.
Rick Bertrand, president of USW Local 6500, told reporters a great deal of work has been done between his union and the company to repair the bad feelings that existed after the longest strike in the union’s history.
Kelly Strong, vice-president of Ontario/UK Operations for Vale, said several meetings have been held between the company and the union in the last two to three years to build a relationship of “mutual respect and trust.”
In the past, the company and the union have met first on neutral territory — usually a hotel boardroom — making a show of exchanging proposals about three months before a contract expired.
No proposals have been exchanged yet between the parties. About 2,700 members of USW Local 6500 are being surveyed about their priorities in negotiations.
Neither Strong nor Bertrand would say what issues might be on the table in talks, and said they won’t be sharing information with media and the public throughout the negotiation process.
Bertrand said the news conference was held because the two want to send a positive message to the community that they believe a deal can be negotiated.
Bertrand and Myles Sullivan, USW’s staff representative and area co-ordinator, will lead Local 6500’s bargaining team.
Vale’s bargaining team will be led by Mitch Medina, the company’s director of human resources, safety, health and the environment. Medina was once a member of USW Local 6500 and worked as a furnace operator for the mining company. He moved into human resources several years ago and has been involved in some bargaining with USW Local 2020, representing the office, technical and professional unit at Vale.
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