What are Unions Good For?

This is the Union I belong to. What has it done for me? It has given me job security, competitive wages, and has looked out for our collective interests.

During the week our contract was up for renewal, March 31st to be exact. We gave our negotiating team a wish list of things we would like added to our collective bargaining agreement. During these hard economic times we were not expecting much during the negotiations...status-quo would have sufficed. Now during these negotiations our Brother Union USW Local 6500 have been on strike for approximately 9 months and has been hard on everyone involved including my brother and brother in law. We have to cross their picket lines every day to get to work. Now I work as a unionized staffer so my work is completely different from what they do. I am not a production worker, maintenance worker, tradesman, nothing to do with running the mines here at Vale Inco. I can't speak for all the 2020 members since some have volunteered or have been volun-told to do some of the striking workers jobs which has not been received well by the striking workers but most understood...it's either do these jobs of get fired!

Now back to negotiations - during this time our committee has told us that they are only thinking of 2020, we are separate from the USW 6500 and we will get you a "Fair Deal". From all the information the Company and our Bargaining Committee have relayed to us, it sounded like all was going well until two days before we were to vote. Talks broke off and our committee wanted us to unanimously reject the offer presented by the company. This was strange since it was brodcasted to the media before we could see what we were going to reject...a well calculated plan, and I will tell you why. I was working late that day when I happened to check our local media for updates regarding negotiations. I was starting to get stressed since I just bought a house and there was no way we would have survived a strike, when all of a sudden an email came in from the company showing the proposed contract. I read it and saw nothing worth striking for, actually it was a great contract. Fast forward to the next day, membership meeting before vote. This was where we found out why our negotiating team was so adamant in striking. They went through our wish list of things that we didn't get but nothing was removed either but other things were added so it was better than status-quo. Blah Blah Blah they went until their true agenda was reviled. Now remember our striking 6500 brothers, well The Rejection was for them...wait a second, you went on T.V. told everyone we should reject even though the contract was fair...The Union just threw us to the sharks, wolves, lions whatever man eating animal is out there (Local 6500). It was in the best interest for the striking 6500 members, what about your local 2020 that you were fighting for, now did we get the best deal possible or did you give up hoping we would reject with some of the things we didn't get. It ended up being a political agenda...either reject or become SCABS!!! Quote from our lead negotiator from the USW,

-"Loranger said his bargaining committee decided to recommend rejection of the contract in part to support striking Steelworkers Local 6500 members."

“As a committee, we felt strongly that we had to do our part in support of Local 6500's struggle,” Loranger said. “We did not forget about (Local 6500). We spoke about them, as a committee several times, and what efforts we could do to support Local 6500.” -

Now WTF!!! We did not give a strike mandate vote for this reason. We knew it was going to be about the other union that has nothing to do with our union. We read the contract and 84.5% of us accepted what we thought was a "Fair Deal". We looked after ourselves.

What are Unions Good For? Well in our case it wasn't for the best interests of our members and because our union didn't speak up for us, we now have to cross the lines, being hated by our brother Union, being labeled as SCABS and you never know what might happen to our personal belongings, families etc...

I hope the Local 6500 members well and there is no hard feelings by me towards you. We are caught up in a power struggle between 2 powerful businesses and we end up being the losers in all of this.

United we don't Stand (sorry)

Nuno