Not taking sides here folks...just reporting the facts here at Vale in Sudbury.

For information only...here are the wages reported by some employees from 2008.

Unionized Surface worker - equipment operator - $144,000 gross annual

Unionized Miner Underground - over $200,000 gross annual

These figures included the Nickel Bonus.

These same folks are now on strike...the issues are:

1. Increased entry point for Nickel Bonus from $2.25 to $5.00 (price of nickel) and (now) capped at 15% of employees annual straight time pay. (It is more complicated than this but you get the picture)

2. New employees are now in a defined contribution plan while existing employees are in a defined benefit pension plan (company pays entire shot). With the proposed new plan both the company and the employee contribute to the pension.(company pays less than in the past) Existing employees have the option of switching to the new plan.

3. Seniority Provisions - less manpower movement as result of job vacancies - elimination of training postings - only successful applicants will be trained (again a summary not a full list)

There is a lot of misinformation out ther so this may clear it up.

For example many believe that Vale is eliminating the nickel bonus - not true.

Also some believe that new employees have no pension - again not true.

SN