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| Last updated at 8:41 AM on 20/12/08 |
IOC shutting down two pellet furnaces 
Mining/Labour
TARA MULLOWNEY
The Telegram
After announcing plans for a one-month shutdown this summer and halting an expansion at its Labrador City mine earlier this month, the Iron Ore Co. of Canada (IOC) delivered more news to its employees Friday.
However, the union representing the workers says it could have been much worse.
In a conference call Friday morning, IOC officials informed the United Steelworkers of America that effective immediately, it is shutting down two pellet furnaces.
This makes a total of three shut-down pellet machines out of a possible six, meaning pellet production will be decreased by half.
"The rationale for this is that the markets are slow, but also we've got a fair stockpile of pellets and we want to have a higher inventory of concentrate, hoping that if the market turns around in the near future, we've got both pellets and concentrate to offer customers for sale," said George Kean, president of union local 5795.
There will be no layoffs as a result of the latest shutdowns, Kean said. Workers will be distributed among other areas of the project beginning in January.
This is the first time the operation has been down to half production without any layoffs, Kean said.
"As president, I'm quite pleased the IOC, at this stage, is doing everything possible to alleviate the hardship on the employees," he said. "We can see that they're struggling to try to avoid it, but the difficulty and the uncertainty is that we're not to the bottom of this global downturn yet."
The union has started a national employment insurance campaign, asking government to make changes to the employment insurance (EI) system, eliminating the waiting period before benefits begin, extending benefits for up to two years, eliminating some eligibility rules, allowing workers who receive severance pay to also receive EI benefits right away, and increasing the level of EI benefits and the maximum level of earnings before triggering a clawback.
tbm@thetelegram.com
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20/12/08
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stephenville Guy from NL writes: What? What? change the EI system? Receive Severance pay and receive EI benefits?
All this means is that the employee would be hit harder during income tax time. And Severance pay, I taught no one was getting laid off at IOC?
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| Posted 20/12/2008 at 11:03 PM | Alert an Editor | Link to comment |
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