Overland Park, Kan.-The strike at the North American Salt Co.’s Cote Blanche mine in St. Mary Parish, La., is not expected to affect the fertilizer business of parent Compass Minerals, headquartered here. North American workers went on strike amid negotiations over a new contract for the mine. The mine employs more than 150 workers, most of whom belong to the United Steelworkers Union. A statement from North American management said the two sides reached an impasse in the contract talks, referring to “a fair and reasonable offer” from the company keeping wages above those paid by neighboring mines, while the union wants a 24 percent increase. “The work stoppage at our rock salt mine, which produces highway deicing salt in Louisiana, doesn’t affect our fertilizer business and isn’t expected to have any material impact on our salt business,” Compass Minerals spokeswoman Peggy Landon told Green Markets. In other news, the company says highway deicing sales volume, which includes sales for all highway maintenance products sold in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., as well as rock salt sold to the chemical industry, totaled 3,900,000 tons in the three months ended March 2010, compared to sales of 3,729,000 tons in the first quarter of 2009. To provide investors with insight into how winter weather affects the company’s sales performance, the company has reported that there were 108 snow events in 11 representative cities in the company’s primary North American highway deicing service area, compared to 99 snow events in the same cities in the 2009 period.
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