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Striking Hudbay union formalizes complaints

IAM Local 1848 members say they have lodged formal complaints with the federal labour board, the latest twist in the nearly three-week partial strike at Hudbay.
Hudbay’s Rob Winton

IAM Local 1848 members say they have lodged formal complaints with the federal labour board, the latest twist in the nearly three-week partial strike at Hudbay.

IAM vice-president Blair Sapergia said Wednesday the union’s complaints allege “unfair bargaining practices” and illegitimate use of replacement workers on the part of Hudbay.

Asked what unfair practices are alleged, Sapergia said the company “never had any intention to bargain seriously,” offered “scripted” responses and “never had the right people at the table that could ever make a decision.”

“They need to come to the table to bargain seriously and they never did,” Sapergia said.

As for replacement workers – the title IAM has given to about 13 contractors at Hudbay – Sapergia argues they have been used in ways that contravene the rules.

There is no law banning replacement workers – and not everyone agrees the Hudbay contractors are replacement workers – in federally regulated industries such as mining.

But Sapergia said the Canada Labour Code is “fairly clear that you cannot bring in replacement workers if your sole intent is to break the union” – and that’s IAM’s argument.

Not served

Rob Winton, head of Hudbay’s Manitoba division, said Wednesday afternoon the company had not been served with papers from IAM about the complaints as is spelled out in the Labour Code.

“As a matter of record, the federal labour board has been part of negotiations between the union and Hudbay as we went through conciliation with a federally appointed conciliator,” added Winton.

Hudbay has repeatedly defended its bargaining process and its final three-year offer to IAM, which included a 10.9 per cent raise for certified tradespeople, a 10 per cent pension increase and other improvements.

Hudbay has also said legislation and its collective agreements allow the use of contractors in specific circumstances, and that contractors do not prevent the company from hiring and training employees.

Sapergia said there’s no indication as to when IAM might hear back from the labour board.

“This is a pretty new process for us, [so] I don’t know,” Sapergia said. “I’m hoping because we are in a strike position already that there will be some swift action, but it’s hard to say.”

Mine running

As the strike entered its 20th day yesterday, IAM continued to tell members that Hudbay is not making money from its Constancia mine in Peru – something Winton said isn’t true.

“Constancia’s ramp-up as reported during our quarterly update has gone very well and they are producing copper concentrate at or above plan currently,” Winton said. “Union activity in Peru has not impacted Hudbay’s operation or the port it uses to ship concentrate to customers.”

Winton was responding to a statement on IAM’s website claiming that Constancia was suffering “major delays” due to protests and that a strike had closed the shipping port used by the mine.

IAM also speculated on its website that Brad Lantz, a Hudbay vice-president, may have exercised tens of thousands of stock options last week because of the IAM strike.

But Winton said many Hudbay employees received a grant of stock options in 2005 that expired on May 15, 2015.

“As a result, employees with options remaining were required to exercise their options prior to expiry or forfeit them,” Winton said.

Winton also disputed ongoing statements from IAM that production in Flin Flon and Snow Lake has become idle without the striking tradespeople at work.

“Production results during the strike are currently at or better than plan,” Winton said Wednesday. “The safe production results at all of our operations continue to be delivered by strong management and a dedicated and skilled group of employees maintaining our assets. 777 [mine] production has improved during the strike from its performance during the last few weeks of April.”

Protocol

Following days of picket-induced lineups of vehicles waiting to enter Hudbay properties earlier this month, IAM and the company have signed a protocol agreement that limits vehicle delays.

“The delays imparted after the picket line protocol was signed are being monitored and documented,” said Winton.

Meanwhile, the potential dangers of picketing along the Perimeter Highway were underscored Tuesday when police received a complaint that an industrial-truck driver was travelling at an inappropriate speed near the picketers.

“When RCMP investigated, the driver was not aware of the protest action in the area. No charges were laid,” said RCMP spokeswoman Tara Seel.

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