Falconbridge wants to divide its four mines and mill operations off from the smelter, making two independent business units with separate seniority lists for the miners. Albert Goulard, a maintenance worker in the smelters with 10 years' service, said this would allow the company to lay off workers out of seniority. They would also lose the right to bump someone with less seniority in another mine, mill, or smelter.

Goulard said the last proposed contract by the company, if adopted, would force the workers to talk to the foreman prior to approaching the union in any work-related dispute. "They are trying to take back all we won in 47 years: rights and conditions of work," commented Goulard as he stood along with other strikers by a bonfire outside a union trailer. A number of miners see the concessions demanded by the company as a direct attack on the union and the current strike as a way to defend it. "It's the kind of management that we have at Falconbridge that creates a need for unions. Hell, they don't break them, they create them," said a January 1 picket line newsletter.

Local 598 was certified at Falconbridge in 1944 as part of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers--known before 1916 under the name of Western Federation of Miners (WFM). In contrast to most of the Mine Mill locals in Canada that became part of the United Steelworkers of America during the McCarthy-Cold War period, Local 598 merged with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) in 1993.

Since the beginning of the strike Falconbridge has hired 200 additional security cops from Toronto-based Accu-fax to escort trucks delivering ore to the smelter and buses carrying scabs into work. "They are here to provoke confrontation. They intimidate. They are here to break our strike," a notice on the union web site said. The company claims the smelter is running at 60 percent capacity. The union says it is being run at around 30 percent.

The ongoing labor conflict is reportedly costing the company CAN$10 million a month (CAN$1=US 67 cents.) Falconbridge, which produces 35,000 tons of nickel a year--4 percent of world production--made $235 million in profits the first half of last year. Noranda, Falconbridge's parent company, is taking advantage of the lower price of Falconbridge's shares as a way to deepen its takeover of the mine complex. Prior to the strike, Noranda announced it had increased its holdings of Falconbridge to 50.1 percent of outstanding shares. By the end of the year Noranda held 55 percent.

At the end of December, members of Local 40 of the Norwegian Chemical Workers Union (NKIF) were informed that workers at Falconbridge Nikkelverk refinery would be laid off for 16 days because of a shortage of materials. "This is all due to the strike in Sudbury. We just don't have enough work for these people," said Craig Crosby, spokesperson of Falconbridge, after the announcement of the layoffs.

A union membership meeting in Norway adopted a resolution rejecting the idea that the workers in Sudbury are responsible for layoffs. "The reason for the conflict in Canada is the management behavior from the first day of negotiations," the resolution states. "NKIF Local 40 repeats its full support for our fellow workers in CAW 598. The fact that we are now laid off will not change this. Their struggle is our struggle." In November, more than 500 union members working at the Falconbridge refinery in Norway declared a five-day strike in solidarity with the struggle in Sudbury.

This kind of strong solidarity and support can also be found across Ontario. For example, on December 11 a group of close to 50 strikers went to Toronto to visit Queen's Park and the Falconbridge corporate offices where they requested a meeting with President Oyvind Hushovd. They were joined by Steelworkers and other union supporters. Plant gate collections have raised $25,000 in front of Steelworker-organized Inco's nickel mines, also in Sudbury.

Two tractor trailers loaded with toys and presents for the strikers' children rolled into Sudbury before Christmas, donated by CAW members in southern Ontario. A number of stores in the region have extended special discounts to the strikers.

In December, the mine workers union submitted unfair labor practice charges to the Ontario Labour Relation Board around the company's campaign to bargain directly with the workers in order to avoid the union. A hearing before the board, scheduled for December 28, was postponed until January 22 at the company's request.

"I have to admit I was pretty complacent," said Doug Barney, a miner for 28 years at Falconbridge. The strike "has shaken me up. I remember when [Ontario Premier] Mike Harris and his henchmen were after people on welfare. Now they're after us. Most of us are just a paycheck away from being on welfare ourselves. It's just like Hitler did with the Jews; they went after the most vulnerable first."

Christian Cornejo is a meat packer and member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 175/633 in Toronto.  
 
 
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