Saskatoon-After a brief work outage on Monday, July 28, members of the United Steelworkers (USW) at PotashCorp’s Cory mine in Saskatchewan returned to work and the negotiating table. The USW said Monday’s action was the first in a possible series of rotating strikes at the three mine sites. It said it ended the action Monday to accept an invitation from PotashCorp to get back to the bargaining table at 4 p.m. USW said it suspended the escalating job action as long as talks continue, but will not lift a ban on overtime. “This is a hopeful sign,” said USW Western Canada Director Stephen Hunt. “But our members are ready to resume their action if there is no progress toward a settlement.” The Cory mine was in the process of coming back up on July 27 after a two-week maintenance shutdown. Workers at two other mines, Allan and Patience Lake, have also voted to strike (GM July 28, p. 12). However, both of those are currently down for maintenance, with Allan down July 27-Aug. 9 and Patience Lake June 15-Oct. 4. Some 500 workers work at all three mines. Later in the week, sources said negotiations continued and PotashCorp proposed mediation and USW accepted. It is to begin Monday, Aug. 4. Citing PotashCorp earnings, USW argues that for the first six months of the year the company has an after-tax profit of $1.5 billion, which would be $300,000 per employee. It argues that PotashCorp is receiving far more profit per worker than most mining companies, and paying lower wages than many other major Canadian mining operations. PotashCorp says the deal already offered to USW would make them the highest paid potash miners in the industry.
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