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Updated: USW acceptance means Hudbay operations continue

A decision by two Hudbay unions, including the largest, to ratify an offer means Flin Flon-Snow Lake operations will continue on, says the head of the company’s Manitoba division.
Cell house in the Flin Flon zinc plant.
Cell house in the Flin Flon zinc plant.

A decision by two Hudbay unions, including the largest, to ratify an offer means Flin Flon-Snow Lake operations will continue on, says the head of the company’s Manitoba division.

Rob Winton made the statement Monday after USW Local 7106 and USW Local 9338 announced they had accepted the company’s three-year offer.

Local 7106, which has about 650 members who work in production, accepted the offer by a 72 per cent margin.

Local 7106 president Tom Davie said the union’s bargaining team recommended the offer to members “under threat” of a lockout if they refused.

Members still had the final say, of course, but knew that a rejection would mean a strike given that no further discussions with Hudbay were scheduled.

Local 7106’s ratification vote, held in Flin Flon and Snow Lake for three days ending Monday, brought out 88.5 per cent of the union’s members.

Local 9338, which represents 101 office and technical workers, approved the offer by an 88 per cent margin with 83 per cent of members casting ballots.

A member of Local 9338 said the union was offered the same deal as Local 7106.

The vote means members of both USW unions will receive an extra $4 an hour over three years, consisting of $1 in 2015, $1.75 in 2016 and $1.25 in 2017.

Sources told The Reminder the offer also adds another $5.50 per month of service to a worker’s pension. For a worker retiring after 30 years of service, that’s an extra $165 a month, according to Reminder calculations.

While some supporters of the striking IAM Local 1848 union balked at the USW unions’ decision, IAM itself stressed that its “fight is with Hudbay,” not other unions.

IAM had anticipated its strike, launched May 2, would temporarily close Hudbay operations. While sources inside the company say production seems to be down from normal levels, operations have carried on for more than a month without the 180 members of IAM, mostly mechanics, machinists and pipefitters.

The Reminder has much more on this story in Wednesday’s print edition.

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