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Inco Lock-Out Hits Nickel Supplies

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15 July, 2005ICEM News Release No. 69/1999

Canadian-based Inco will have to declare force majeure on some of its deliveries, the company admitted yesterday.

The defaults on shipments result from Inco's lock-out against workers at a Canadian nickel mine in Thompson, Manitoba.

Inco's blunder in Thompson will seriously weaken its credibility as a supplier, observers predicted. The company's sales slogan is Stronger For Our Experience.

"The total quantity of products that the Company is currently expected to be unable to supply as a result of the continuation of the work stoppage represents about 15 percent of the Company's average monthly primary nickel sales for the first nine months of 1999," Inco said yesterday.

On its own figures, Inco supplies about 26 percent of the world's nickel demand. It is also an important producer of copper, precious metals and cobalt.

1,040 workers at the Thompson mine have been locked out since 14 September. They are members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). The lock-out followed the union membership's rejection of the company's final offer. The Inco offer did not include any improvements in pensions, wages or benefits. USWA members at two other Inco Canadian operations have suspended their participation in joint labour-management design projects until the lock-out at Thompson is settled.

At the global level, the USWA is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

Earlier this month, USWA Canadian National Director Lawrence McBrearty asked the ICEM World Congress to back the Inco workers' campaign. Inco's behaviour is an example of a " heartless corporate culture that puts profits before people," McBrearty told the Congress in Durban, South Africa. The USWA would take "the struggle for justice" to "the four corners of the globe," he declared.

"We will mobilise our affiliates worldwide to communicate their solidarity with the USWA," responded ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, "and we will use every means to urge Inco to reach a settlement with the union expeditiously."

Inco is present in 14 countries, and has production operations in Canada, the UK, Indonesia, Japan, Guatemala, France, China, New Caledonia and the United States.