Iron Ore workers remain on strike after rejecting latest offer

LABRADOR CITY, N.L. — Iron Ore Company of Canada workers in Labrador City remain on strike after rejecting the company’s latest offer.

United Steelworkers Union Local 5795 says 76.5 per cent of the workers who voted Tuesday rejected the offer.

No details about the latest rejected offer were immediately available.

The Labrador City strike began on March 27 after the workers turned down an earlier offer from the company.

Wayne Fraser, the union’s Ontario-Atlantic director, previously said at the time that the Iron Ore Company of Canada had “unnecessarily forced a strike” over such fundamental issues as seniority rights.

Local 5795 president George Kean said in mid-March that while the final offer had moved off its demand for concessions and the right to contract out jobs held by union members, it was not enough to avert a strike by the company’s 1,000 employees.

Kean said the workers were also seeking wage and benefit increases in line with industry standards.

IOC is 59 per cent-owned by Australia-based mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd.