Voisey's Bay strikers to vote on offer

The union representing workers who have been on strike at a northern Labrador mine for 14 months said Tuesday it will let its members vote on the latest offer from mining giant Vale.

About 200 employees at Voisey's Bay Nickel have been on picket lines since August 2009 in a dispute centringon wages and benefits.

Darren Cove, the president of the United Steelworkers local at the mine, said even though talks with parent company Vale broke offthis week, a vote will soon be held.

The union leadership is recommending neither acceptance nor rejection of the Vale offer, the terms of which have not been disclosed.

"That's to be left to the membership," Cove told CBC News.

"We have the latest proposal by the company, we're taking it to the membership for a vote, and they'll decide whether they want to remain on the line and fight this company or in fact accept what the company's offering and go back to work."

Loan comes under attack

The decision to move to a vote comes the same week not only as talks broke offbut amid revelations that Vale has obtained a $1-billion line of credit from the Export Development Corp., a federal Crown corporation.

Vale intends to use $250 million of the line of credit to build a high-tech processing plant in southern Newfoundland, which is being built as part of the development agreement on the Voisey's Bay nickel mine in northern Labrador.

"I think it's shameful for our government to have any dealings with that company on that level," Cove said.

But Cory McPhee, Vale's vice-president of corporate affairs, said the company's workers would benefit from the federal support.

"Any business that's investing in itself, any business that's planning for the future, that's good for the business, good for the country and good for the employees who work at that business," he told CBC News.

"So the comments are not only misinformed, they are ill-advised."

Kathy Dunderdale, Newfoundland and Labrador's natural affairs minister, said the provincial government is keenly interested in ensuring that Vale keeps the promises that the company made on jobs and production. How Vale finances its decisions is less important, she indicated.

"This is not an area, in terms of the company's financing tools, that we spend any amount of time or have any particular right to investigate," she said.