Voisey's Bay Nickel says it will be able to maintain production, despite a strike involving support workers and another labour dispute on the horizon.

About 60 workers employed by contracting company Torngait Services put up picket lines Wednesday. The workers handle duties ranging from picking up garbage to operating the airport.

Bob Carter, public affairs manager with Voisey's Bay Nickel, said essential services are still running at the nickel mine, on Labrador's northern coast.

"For all intents and purposes, we are able to continue to operate our mine," Carter told CBC News.

"Those people working there are working for Voisey's Bay Nickel, as well as the concentrator itself."

Managers are taking care of duties usually done by Torngait Services staff.

A demonstration Thursday in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, involving about a dozen workers who live in the town, featured handwritten placards highlighting the theme of equality, the key issue driving the strike.

The workers want to receive the same quarterly bonus paid to the mine's direct employees. The bonuses can run as high as $30,000 per year. Torngait Services has offered a bonus, but under terms that the workers say are unfair.

"We want to be treated the same as them," said Junior Hodder, one of the workers who helps load the huge carriers that ship out the ore mined at Voisey's Bay.

"They want us to work like them, they want us to live with them, but they don't want to pay us what they're paying them," he said.

"It's unfair, and we ain't standing for it."

Meanwhile, about 60 workers employed by another contractor, Ushitau, have been voting on whether to strike against Voisey's Bay Nickel. If a mandate is approved, those workers could be on strike by this weekend.