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A local of the Syndicat des Métallos, affiliated with the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec, announced Sunday a tentative agreement has been reached between its negotiating committee and the Iron Ore Company of Quebec. Members will vote on the agreement this week.
The 700 workers, employed in the company’s Bloom Lake mine near Fermont, a small mining city in northeastern Quebec, will begin to vote on Monday. The final meeting is planned for Thursday, the union said on Sunday.
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At the end of January, members voted overwhelmingly in favour of giving their leadership a strike mandate. They had rejected the most recent company offer and adopted a mandate for a general strike with a 98.6-per-cent majority.
Since then, a conciliator has become involved in the negotiations. Salaries are the main sticking point, but the benefits included in the company’s offer were also deemed insufficient.
All but 12 of the 712 workers involved commute to their jobs from other parts of Quebec and remain there for extended periods. They are mainly production workers, including day labourers, operators, mechanics and welders. The workers represent about 63 per cent of the employees.
Quebec Iron Ore was founded in 2016 through the mining development company Champion Iron.
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