Millwright Marc St. Amant, left, and electrician Vern Cable picket outside the Vale Inco smelter complex in Copper Cliff, Ont., near Sudbury, on Monday. (Gino Donato/Canadian Press)

Workers at nickel miner Vale Inco's Sudbury, Ont., operations hit the picket lines Monday, believing they can force a quick end to their contract dispute as the company's supply of the metal is slowly strangled off.

Vale Inco, however, says the union must show some willingness to compromise before it will head back to the bargaining table, setting the stage for another long and bitter showdown at the Northern Ontario mining complex.

"We know their stockpile of nickel is depleting itself as we speak," Wayne Fraser, the United Steelworkers director for Ontario and Atlantic Canada, said in an interview.

Vale spokesman Cory McPhee said the company is willing to resume bargaining, but only if the union shows a willingness to make some compromises.

"Our business requirements haven't changed simply because the union elected to take the employees out on strike," McPhee said.

"We're always willing to negotiate but we can't negotiate by ourselves, so from our perspective until the union accepts the fact that change is required for our business to be competitive in all price cycles, there's little for us to talk about."

In votes held Friday and Saturday, 85 per cent of the 3,100 mining and processing workers at Vale's operations in Sudbury voted to reject the company's latest contract offer. They were joined by employees at Vale's smaller operations in Port Colborne, Ont., and Voisey's Bay, N.L. in voting down the offer — the Port Colborne workers also went on strike Monday, while those at Voisey's Bay begin Aug. 1.

First strike

This is the first strike at the Sudbury operations since Brazil-based Companhia Vale do Rio Doce bought the former Inco Ltd. for $19 billion in October 2006. Earlier work stoppages at Inco have been lengthy, including a three-month strike in Sudbury in 2003 and a two-month strike at Voisey's Bay in 2006.

At issue this time is Vale's proposal to reduce a bonus tied to the price of nickel, as well as a plan by the company to exempt new employees from its defined-benefit pension plan, moving them instead to a defined-contribution plan.

"Hopefully the company recognizes the significant votes as a signal that they ought to get back to the bargaining table and put a Canadian solution to this … rather than trying to impose a Brazilian solution on it," Fraser said.

Fraser said the strike at Vale's Sudbury operations, which produce 10 per cent of the world's nickel supply, means the company's stock will quickly be depleted, forcing a quick end.

No immediate impact

Because Vale had already shut down its mining and processing operations in Sudbury for eight weeks starting June 1, the strike won't have an impact until the end of the month.

Adding fuel to the dispute's fire, Vale chief executive Roger Agnelli said last week that Sudbury is the company's highest-cost operation and isn't sustainable at current prices levels.

McPhee added that the ore in the Sudbury mines has got progressively harder to get at as the operation ages, making it more costly to mine. As well, the company has had to incur costs to keep up with tougher air pollution standards.