IOC seeking wage freeze from Labrador workers

Hundreds of unionized workers at the Iron Ore Company of Canada mine in Labrador City will vote next week on whether to accept a wage freeze.

It is yet another attempt by the company to cut labour costs in the face of plummeting iron ore prices.

• IOC offering early retirement to mine workers

Ron Thomas, presidentof Local 5795 of the United Steelworkers, said the company came to the union on Wednesday with the latest request for concessions.

Last week, the company offered earlyretirement incentives to roughly 145 workers in Labrador and Quebec, and gave them a deadline of today to make a decision.

These are uneasy times

Workers with 30 or more years of service, or who are 62 yearsofage and older with at least 10 years of service, are eligible.

Those who accept the offer will receive a cash incentive of $25,000.

Retirement is a huge decision and you deal with it for the rest of your life, so it's got to be something that you're sure of doing.- Ron Thomas

Thomas estimated that 100-plus workers inLocal 5795 were eligible for the retirement incentive.

He expects about 20 workers to take the offer.

"I've been telling most of my members that were eligible for this to make sure you don't feel pressured into taking this. If you're not ready to retire I wouldn't want any of our members to feel they have got take it. Retirement is a huge decision and you deal with it for the rest of your life, so it's got to be something that you're sure of doing."

With the worldwideprice of ore slumping and production in Labrador dropping to roughly 16 million tonnes last year, Thomas is not surprised the company is looking to cut costs.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. It is uneasy times. When the company was making $220 per tonne on ore and now they're making $61 a tonne, it makes a huge difference," he said.

But Thomas believes the company is still making money, and he continues to seek a meeting with Kelly Saunders, the president and CEO of IOC.

"We still have a lot of problems between theunion and the company," said Thomas. "Hopefully those things will work out in theend."