Breakthrough? Deal may end three-month Goderich mine strike

A tentative deal has been reached that could end the 12-week strike at Goderich’s underground salt mine.

As tensions between the 348-member union, Unifor Local 16-0, and the mine’s U.S.-based owner, Compass, deepened, talks resumed late last week. Late Saturday night, the union announced a possible breakthrough. Mine workers will vote on whether to accept or reject the deal on Monday. Unifor’s national boss, Jerry Dias, credited “the ongoing support from the Goderich community” in helping restart talks. Tensions rose in recent weeks along the picket line as replacement workers — some from as far away as New Brunswick — started working at the mine. The union was furious. In the past 10 days, pickets erected a blockade of wooden pallets to block the replacement workers’ entrance to the mine. When Compass went to court to have it removed, a rolling blockade of tractors from nearby farms was soon in its place.

That step by the union — in breach of a court order to allow the replacement workers into the mine — may have pushed the company back to the bargaining table, one expert said. Stephanie Ross, an associate professor at the School of Labour Studies at McMaster University, said the workers had “no choice” because Ontario law permits the company to use replacement workers. “Sometimes, workers have to take matters into their own hands and skirt the law to find a balance. Replacement workers are an enormous tool that employers can use to starve the workers out,” said Ross, noting union leaders could have been arrested for defying a court order.

But Ross also noted the striking miners in Goderich have one big advantage — the salt isn’t going anywhere.

“The company can’t move the mine, the work can’t go anywhere.”

The Goderich mine is as deep as the CN Tower is tall. It’s the largest underground mine of its kind in the world.