Hudbay machinists are challenging the company’s contention that they earn a competitive wage, the latest exchange in tense bargaining that already includes talk of a strike.
Blair Sapergia, vice-president of the machinists’ union, IAM Local 1848, estimates that 10 tradespeople have left Hudbay over the last year, largely because of higher wages offered by other companies.
“We can’t even get [Hudbay] to admit that our wages aren’t comparable,” said Sapergia. “Even at the bargaining table they won’t tell us that. Even in confidence they won’t say. They’re still saying our wages are comparable.”
Rates
Sapergia said Hudbay’s trade rate is $34.27 an hour compared to $41 at Vale in Thompson, $42 at potash miner Mosaic and $52 at uranium producer Cameco.
Each of those companies is much larger than Hudbay, which defends its wage and benefits packages as competitive, especially when compared to other mid-tier base metal mining companies.
But Sapergia said even as Hudbay draws parallels with mid-tier companies to set trades compensation, he believes it has a different standard for salaried employees.
He gave The Reminder a copy of a 2012 letter Hudbay sent to a salaried employee. The letter said a review of salaries, incentives and benefit programs would mean some salary band changes.
Sapergia is disappointed that this review used benchmarks based on compensation offered at Cameco, Vale, Mosaic and other mining companies much larger than Hudbay.
“In all honesty I take offence to the fact that [Hudbay] wants to base the hourly wages on mid-tier mining companies” while using “top-tier” companies as a basis for
salaried employees, Sapergia said.
Rob Winton, head of Hudbay’s Manitoba operations, said the benchmarking process mentioned in the letter is only part of the story.
“At every business the process of determining compensation draws on information from a number of sources, including benchmarking but not on benchmarking alone,” Winton said. “Hudbay’s goal is to structure compensation that we believe reflects the range of factors that make up the market environment and also balances the interests of the company and our employees.”
Sapergia believes Hudbay trades compensation must be more in line with what is offered by the companies drawing some employees away from Hudbay.
He said wages and shift schedules are “huge” for recruiting and retaining tradespeople.
“Those are the two things everybody looks at,” Sapergia said. “Community and job satisfaction is going to keep them here. But wages and shift schedules is what everybody looks at first. If you’re looking for a new job, you don’t look for the bottom payer.”
IAM Local 1848 announced last week that it will hold a strike vote on March 17. At least two-thirds of the 190 machinists must support the measure for it to pass.
A vote in favour of a strike would not necessarily result in job action, but it would give IAM members that option. The earliest a strike could begin is April 21.
IAM is one of seven unions at Hudbay’s Flin Flon and Snow Lake operations. None of the other unions have called a strike vote.
All union members are working under the terms of deals that expired on Jan. 1, 2015.
