– Files from Zachary Barrowcliff, My Cariboo Now
Members of Unifor Local 3018 have taken strike action at the Williams Lake Gibraltar copper mine.
The strike began today at 12:00am after Taseko Mines refused to negotiate the terms of a new collective agreement.
Unifor Mining Director, Mario Santos talks about the issues up to this point.
“We’ve been able to resolve some issues, but there still are a lot of issues out there.” says Santos.
“We’re pretty far apart in regards to wages, language issues around how overtime is allocated and contracted out, so there are some pretty substantial issues that we’re pretty far apart about.”
The current collective agreement had expired yesterday, May 31st, which Santos said lead to the strike affecting 550 employees.
He says they’ve spent about 15 to 16 days in bargaining, with no future dates set up, with membership removing their services and will continue on.
The Gibraltar Mine is the second largest open-pit copper mine in Canada, and the largest employer in the Cariboo Region.
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