By Greg Fry

United Steelworkers hopeful end to Mount Polley strike near

Jul 20, 2018 | 3:58 PM

WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. —The union representing more than 200 workers at the Mount Polley mine in Likely is hopeful its strike is about to end.

Dan Wil, business agent with the United Steelworkers Local 1-2017, is feeling optimistic after talks with employer Imperial Metals this week in Williams Lake.

“The talks went well,” he told CFJC Today. “We got through a lot of the outstanding issues and we just have a few more to go and we will be meeting on Monday (in Kelowna) and hopefully we can bring this dispute to an end.”

He says there have been a number of outstanding issues between both sides, the biggest revolving around temporary workers.

“Our main issue has been the use of temporary employees. The union has taken the position that we shouldn’t have temporary employees and have the employer hire people,” Wil says. 

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“What we have talked about with the employer is there may be the odd time where — because work has been ordered because of the breach a few years ago — that they can use temporary people for government ordered work or something that may be special in nature that’s not quite work we would do at the mine.”

The strike began on May 23 and followed a brief lockout by Mount Polley earlier that day.

So, how is worker morale nearly two months into job action?

“We’re going into week nine. Clearly people would prefer to be at work rather than the picket line but for the most part they support our position. We had a 96 per cent strike vote.”

The last deal between both sides expired December 31, 2017.

CFJC Today contacted Imperial Metals for comment on this story twice this week but received no response.