A judge in Sudbury on Tuesday imposed picket line rules at Vale Inco's strikebound plant near the northern Ontario city.

Justice John Poupore acted after the two sides in the dispute failed to come to an agreement on their own.

Workers walked out at the Vale Inco smelter complex in Copper Cliff, near Sudbury, Ont., in July. (Gino Donato/Canadian Press)

One of the major contentions between the two was busing employees across the union's 10 picket lines. Poupore ordered the company to designate a schedule and tell the union when vehicles of eight or more will cross. He also told the union the buses cannot be detained for more than 12 minutes.

Spokesmen for the International Steelworkers and the company said they were satisfied with the ruling.

About 3,000 production and maintenance workers in Sudbury and another 130 in Port Colborne have been on strike since July 13.

The ongoing labour dispute centres on Vale's proposal to reduce a bonus tied to the price of nickel.

Workers also oppose a plan by the company to exempt new employees from its defined-benefit pension plan, which guarantees employees a reliable, steady income after retirement. The company is proposing to provide them with a defined contribution plan, which bases retirement benefits on investment returns.

The strike is the first job action at the company since Vale bought Inco's assets for $19 billion US in 2006.

At the start of October, the company restarted some mining operations with replacement workers.