The 2021 Kitimat smelter strike was a 69-day labor strike by Rio Tinto workers in Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada.
Aluminum producer Rio Tinto is the main employer in the municipality of Kitimat, in the North Coast region of British Columbia. The workers of the Rio Tinto aluminum smelter and Kemano hydroelectric power plant in Kitimat are represented by Unifor, as Local 2301, with around 950 workers in total.
The collective bargaining agreement between Unifor Local 2301 and Rio Tinto expired in 2021. Negotiations for a new agreement, however, broke down during the summer, with the union accusing Rio Tinto of having used contractors and temporary employees in violation of the previous agreement, of failing to address concerns over pensions, of forcing younger employees into bad pension plans, and of having several hundred employee grievances in backlog. [1] [2] Rio Tinto accused the union of having too many demands and of rejecting a third party mediator for negotiations. [3]
On 21 July, the union announced a 72-hour strike notice, with the workers having voted unanimously to go on strike. [4] National Unifor president Jerry Dias released a statement saying that "despite record-setting profits, Rio Tinto appears so unwilling to work with us and treat our members fairly" and that the union had proposed the first increase in employee benefits in a decade. [5] On 25 July, at one minute past midnight, the first workers walked off the job. The strike had begun. [6] The B.C. Labour Relations Board, however, issued an essential services order in support of the smelter. The smelter would continue to operate at 25% capacity during the strike. Striking workers would receive $300 a week from the Unifor strike fund and an additional $100 a week from the Local 2301 strike fund to compensate for lost salaries.
Despite reporting a decrease in sales of up to 30%, a number of local business supported the strike, offering the striking workers free lunches and free haircuts. [7] [8] On 29 July, local NDP MP Taylor Bachrach visited the strikers, stating that "when you have a historic strike vote of 100 per cent for the first time in the history of this plant and in the history of this community, that means that things have gotten pretty bad." [9] Local MLA Ellis Ross called for the British Columbian government to intervene, stating that he didn't want "to see Kitimat going into decline" or "people suffering to make mortgage payments." [10] On 5 August, after there had been no negotiations between the union and Rio Tinto, several hundred local residents held a rally to "save the northwest," calling for the two sides to resume negotiating. [11]
On 15 August, the captain of MV Indiana, a Norwegian cargo ship that had arrived in Kitimat a week before the strike to collect aluminum shipments and got stuck due to the strike, released a statement saying that the ship was running out of low sulphur marine fuel. Arbutus Point Marine. subcontractor Northwest Fuels, who held responsibility for delivering fuel to the ship, was refusing to cross the picket line. [12]
On August 12, the two sides held a meeting to determine whether there was enough common ground to continue negotiations. On 25 August, the union and Rio Tinto agreed to resume collective bargaining negotiations. [13] On 2 September, the two sides released a joint statement saying that the negotiations were progressing well. [14]
On 25 September, the union and Rio Tinto announced that a new collective bargaining agreement had been reached. [15] On 4 October, the workers voted to ratify the deal by a majority of 70.6%, bringing an end to the strike. Rio Tinto also announced that a memorandum of understanding had been reached on working together and that a protocol for returning to work on the B.C. Works operation had been outlined. [16]
Rio Tinto Alcan is a Canada-based mining company. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, it is a subsidiary of global mining conglomerate Rio Tinto. It was created on 15 November 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto's Canadian subsidiary and Canadian company Alcan.
The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC is a national trade union centre, the central labour body in Canada to which most Canadian labour unions are affiliated.
Royal Oak Mines Incorporated was a gold mining company, founded in 1990 by Margaret "Peggy" Witte in Kirkland, Washington.
Kitimat is a district municipality in the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is a member municipality of the Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine regional government. The Kitimat Valley is part of the most populous urban district in northwest British Columbia, which includes Terrace to the north along the Skeena River Valley. The city was planned and built by the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) during the 1950s. Its post office was approved on 6 June 1952.
The Nechako River arises on the Nechako Plateau east of the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, and flows north toward Fort Fraser, then east to Prince George where it enters the Fraser River. "Nechako" is an anglicization of netʃa koh, its name in the indigenous Carrier language which means "big river".
Unifor Local 200 is a local union of the general trade union Unifor. It represents auto industry workers in Windsor, Ontario at three Ford Motor Company of Canada engine plants and one Nemak aluminum casting plant.
Kemano was a settlement situated 75 km (47 mi) southeast of Kitimat in the province of British Columbia in Canada. It was built to service a hydroelectric power station, built to provide energy for Alcan to smelt aluminum from its ore. The Kemano Generating Station is built 427 m (1,400 ft) inside the base of Mt Dubose in a blasted cavern. It produces 896 MW of power from its eight generators, each of which has a capacity of 112MW.
The Kenney Dam is a rock-fill embankment dam on the Nechako River in northwestern British Columbia, built in the early 1950s. The impoundment of water behind the dam forms the Nechako Reservoir, which is also commonly known as the Ootsa Lake Reservoir. The dam was constructed to power an aluminum smelter in Kitimat, British Columbia by Alcan, although in the late 1980s the company increased their economic activity by selling excess electricity across North America. The development of the dam caused various environmental problems along with the displacement of the Cheslatta T'En First Nation, whose traditional land was flooded.
The Nechako Reservoir, sometimes called the Ootsa Lake Reservoir, is a hydroelectric reservoir in British Columbia, Canada that was formed by the Kenney Dam making a diversion of the Nechako River through a 16-km intake tunnel in the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains to the 890 MW Kemano Generating Station at sea level at Kemano to service the then-new Alcan aluminum smelter at Kitimat. When it was constructed on the Nechako River in 1952, it resulted in the relocation of over 75 families. It was one of the biggest reservoirs built in Canada until the completion of the Columbia Treaty Dams and the W.A.C. Bennett Dam that created Lake Williston. The water level may swing 10 feet between 2790 and 2800 feet.
The Kitimat River is a river in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It originates in the Kitimat Ranges, near the sources of the Dala River, Kemano River, Atna River, and Clore River. It flows in a curve north, then west, then south, emptying into Kitimat Arm at the head of Douglas Channel, at the town of Kitimat.
The Cheslatta Carrier Nation or Cheslatta T'En, of the Dakelh or Carrier people (Ta-cullies, meaning "people who go upon water" is a First Nation of the Nechako River at the headwaters of the Fraser River.
The Kemano Generating Station is situated 75 km (47 mi) southeast of Kitimat in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It was completed in 1954, providing hydroelectricity for Alcan's Kitimat Aluminum smelter. The powerhouse is built in a cavern created 427 m (1,400 ft) inside the base of Mt Dubose. It produces 896 MW of power from its eight generator units, each of which has a capacity of 112 MW. It was the largest producer in the province when it was built, and is now the fifth largest electrical plant in British Columbia.
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