Kitimat aluminium smelter strike enters fourth week; Rio Tinto and Unifor to resume negotiations next week

According to a recent report, Rio Tinto and the union will hold another meeting in Vancouver next week to discuss the Kitimat aluminium smelter strike. As the strike enters its fourth week, Rio Tinto and Unifor union have decided to resume negotiations to see if a collective agreement can be renewed.

A week ago, on August 12, a similar meeting was held in Kitimat between top officials from Rio Tinto’s Montreal headquarters and Unifor Local 2301’s president in hopes of ending the strike at the smelter, continuing since July 25.

So far, no updates on the last meeting have been provided by either of the two parties. Information about the next week’s meeting is sent to Rio Tinto’s employees through a company memo on August 17, which read as: “After the meeting held on August 12 and follow up conversations, Rio Tinto and Unifor Local 2301 have agreed to meet early next week in Vancouver with a view to assess the potential restart of negotiations between parties.”

The memo also stated that both parties agreed to involve into no other communication until the next week’s meeting.

The strike began at the smelter on July 25 after seven weeks of failed bargaining before Unifor and Rio Tinto on matters of employee benefits and use of contractors among many other issues. The union claimed that Rio Tinto was proposing a series of benefits reductions, which, however, the company denied.