Sudbury workers reject Vale's new contract settlement offer

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USW 6500 isn't in the drivers seat. Sudbury operations are expensive. It works into Vale-Inco's favour to close Sudbury and ship raw ore to Brazil - where they have the carbon credits to run the smelters full blast.

You don't have to know much of this information to know these workers just slit their own throats. This company will close it's doors and leave ASAP - an obvious conclusion. The workers' are fools. They need to go back today and then work the company back up to what they consider is a decent wage.
I work for a company (unionized) with 3 pay grids. Grid A gets double the pay that I do for doing exactlythe same job except they work only early day shifts with weekends off. Some of grid B has the ability to move to grid A at some point (so they say). I'm in the next part of grid B. I cannot change my status - the contract is clear. I can work my way up to a certain pay level and then it's capped. People below me started at higher wages per hour than me but they cannot work up to quite as high as I can (if I stay and I'm not). Our union rep. (woman) is trying to tell us that we need to work toward having all pay grids moved to grid A. We (the lowly workers) believe they are moving toward disposing of grid A. Wouldn't you if you had workers you are paying $25.00 p/h to and more who are making around $11.00 - 12.00 p/h? Hours have been cut drastically. Customer service is almost nil meaning we get less customers making it appear we are going down. The owner of this company is too powerful. He is never going to allow grid A to get a grip and over and above that, grid A is not going to help us get to their level because they fear losing what they have. Probably 75% of employees see a "Price Smart" store (no union) coming through our doors (same owner) and the end of grid A, B and C. Our union rep says no - don't push for one pay grid - push for grid A. That's likely the same thinking that is happening in the OP. Puts people out of work. Less money coming in sucks but - it's one hell of a lot better than no money. The Sudbury people better suck it up fast.

The Sudbury people, the Voicys Bay people, the Port Colborne people, the Churchill people.... It's all run from Brazil now.