Vale Inco, union to hold exploratory talks

SUDBURY, Ont. - The United Steelworkers union and Vale Inco will meet this weekend with a mediator for exploratory talks.

The talks come after the lead negotiators on both sides decided to jointly ask for the help of a mediator.

The union and the company will meet with veteran mediator Kevin Burkett in Toronto in a bid to find a way forward in the dispute.

More than 3,000 Steelworkers in Sudbury, Ont., Port Colborne, Ont., and Voisey's Bay, N.L., have been on strike since the summer in a dispute over pensions, bonuses and transfer rights.

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  Marc St. Amant, left, a millwright, and Vern Cable, an electrician, picket outside the Vale Inco smelter complex in Copper Cliff, Ont., on Monday July 13, 2009. (Gino Donato / THE CANADIAN PRESS)