Voisey's Bay strike talks to resume

Mining giant Vale Incosaid Thursday it isresuming talks to end a lengthy strike at Voisey's Bay nickel operation in northern Labrador, while also vowing to increase production despite striking workers.

Vale Inco Newfoundland and Labrador (VINL) and the United Steelworkers have blocked next Tuesday and Wednesday for talks dedicated to the Voisey's Bay operations.

Bob Carter, VINL's manager of public affairs, said the meetings will take place in St. John's and are a "carryover" from previous discussions. The two sides met in March with a conciliator.

A strike at the Voisey's Bay mine launched Aug. 1, with more than 200 workers there protesting company demands for a wage freeze and a rollback on bonuses.

The walkout came on the heels of a much larger strike that shut down Vale Inco's operations in Sudbury, Ont.

Vale Inco has been able to maintain some operations at Voisey's Bay, "albeit at a lower-than-normal capacity," Cartertold CBC News Thursday.

For instance, where the company would normally have made four shipments of concentrate during a typical winter season, a cargo vessel was able to dock by the mine just once, in April.

Carter said the company intends to speed up those shipments, and that it has "notified the workforce that we intend to move toward increasing our production."

Meanwhile, theDow Jones news service reports that the Voisey's Bay situation may be negotiated and resolved apart from a larger strike at Sudbury, Ont., even though the company is planning to increase production at Voisey's Bay just as the talks begin.

"To date [the union's] approach has been to ensure our employees in Labrador and Newfoundland stay on strike until negotiations in Sudbury are resolved," a company official told Dow Jones.

"[We] cannot count on USW's strategy changing and so we will move ahead with plans to increase production."

Carter told CBC News thatVale Incohasalways dealt with the Voisey's Bay issue apart from its other Canadian operations. "They're completely separate negotiations," he said.

About 3,100 Vale Inco employees in Canada have been on strike since July.