Roughly 3,000 Vale employees begin voting Wednesday on a proposed collective agreement that could end a strike that's dragged on for almost a year.

Employees have been off the job since July 13, 2009, when the Brazilian mining conglomerate moved to cut costs at its Canadian operations, acquired in its $19.4-billion purchase of Inco Ltd. in 2006.

Workers in Sudbury vote Wednesday and Thursday, while Port Colborne employees commence casting ballots on Thursday.

While the company and the United Steelworkers union are keeping quiet about the details of the proposed contract, it is expected that employees are being asked to agree to some concessions.

That could mean changes to the company's pension plan and a reduction to an employee bonus that is linked to the price of nickel.

The union is recommending employees accept the proposed contract.

Former employee Homer Seguin helped negotiate a defined benefit pension plan for workers in the 1960s.

Concessions expected

He was also part of the bargaining team that got Inco to agree to a nickel bonus in the mid-1980s, when the company couldn't afford wage increases, but agreed to share profits when the price of the metal went up again.

Seguin, who is 76 and fighting lung disease he got from working for Inco in a nickel processing plant in the 1950s, fears he's living just long enough to witness Vale dismantle those benefits.

"I'm thinking that there will be some concessions, not because the union wants to accept them or the workers want to accept them, but because you've been on strike for a year and it looks like this company will stay on strike literally forever if they don't get their way."

Vale said it's trying to ensure the long-term future of mining operations that are old and expensive to run.

Canadian Autoworkers economist Jim Stanford said Vale is financially insulated — the firm made a profit during the strike thanks to its diverse operations — and that throws off the balance of labour relations.

"The global reach of a new company like Vale … has clearly made companies more aggressive, and that's the fundamental source, in my view, of this painful, long shutdown," Stanford said.

While Vale workers in Ontario commence voting, about 200 workers at the company's Voisey's Bay mine in Labrador remain on strike.

With files from Allison Dempster and The Canadian Press