Inco union mulls cooperation with Indonesia, New Caledonia: Report

The union representing striking workers at Canadian nickel producer Inco Ltd.?s Sudbury plant is planning to seek cooperation from Inco workers at other locations, a union representative said Friday.

"We?re going to Norway for a meeting with our friends in Indonesia and New Caledonia," said Wayne Fraser, a director of the United Steelworkers of America, in comments to OsterDowJones.

This is the first time the union is going to seek cooperation from Inco?s other majority-owned units, he said.

The meeting with Inco?s union representatives from Indonesia and New Caledonia will be on Aug. 27-30, according to Fraser.

The longest strike at Inco was in 1978 and lasted for 8 1/2 months, he said earlier.

Exploratory talks with the Inco management have been deadlocked on the health care benefit issue, Fraser said. The other two issues, pension and saving plans, were not discussed during the failed exploratory talks last week.

Inco?s largest operations in Sudbury have been on strike for two months.

After both sides couldn?t agree on health care benefits last weekend, there have been no talks since, both Inco?s spokesman and the union said.

Inco is losing 2,000 metric tons of nickel output for each week of the strike. If the strike continues to September, when demand from stainless steel producers in Europe and the U.S. is expected to pick up, nickel prices could rally further, analysts said.

"If they (Inco management) call, we?re going to resume (exploratory) talks. We?re not going to move first," Fraser said.

Inco spokesman Cory McPhee said the company wasn?t aware of possible cooperation between USWA and unions at other locations.

Inco holds a 59 percent share in PT International Nickel Indonesia, or PT Inco. The Indonesian majority-owned unit is now running at its design capacity of 150 million pounds a year.

Goro Nickel SA, an 85 percent-owned unit, is located in Noumea, New Caledonia. Goro remains under comprehensive review and not in operation yet.

Inco has planned for a capacity of 55,000 tons/year of nickel and 4,500 tons/year of cobalt at the Goro.

According to Steve Mitchell, Inco director of corporate affairs, PT Inco has one labor union, while workers at Goro Nickel are represented by several unions. (*)