Vale Inco will use its 1,200 employees and some outsourced staff to resume partial production at the Sudbury operations, in spite of an ongoing strike.
“Some very limited outside resources (people) will likely be required for essential work and to train employees to do that work,” said Steve Ball, manager of public affairs with Vale Inco Sudbury operations.
“This is about the business, plain and simple.”
The company did not announce a time when production was to begin, only that 1,200 of the technical and managerial staff have been in training the last few weeks.
“We are not putting a date in the sand,” Ball said.
The intention is to work toward a level of production that is comfortable for the employees during the next weeks and months, he said.
Ball did not disclose how many outside people the company intends on hiring to bring up production capacity.
“We will be training and upgrading people on what they need to do to be able to perform the work safely and efficiently.”
Asked if they are concerned about the union's reaction to this decision, Ball responded by saying the company never wanted a strike and would have preferred to perform work with all its workforce gainfully employed.
“Unfortunately, this is not the case."
Vale Inco “customers are rightly concerned about the work stoppage and we want to ensure them that we understand and we will do what we can to deliver and supply them.”
Ball did not have information on stockpiles or impacting nickel prices from the company's perspective.
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