COMINCO SEEKS MEETING WITH STRIKING UNION LOCALS
Cominco Ltd said it
expects to meet today with two of five United Steelworkers of
America locals on strike at its Trail smelter and Kimberley,
B.C. lead-zinc mine, a Cominco spokesman said.
    It had no meeting scheduled with the other three striking
locals, which rejected a tentative three-year contract
Saturday, Cominco spokesman Richard Fish said.
    Fish said the pact that was rejected contained a cost of
living increase tied to the Canadian consumer price index, but
no wage increase. With 81 pct of the membership voting, 54.5
pct voted no and 45.5 pct voted yes, the union said.
    The three locals represent about 2,600 production and
maintenance workers, while the remaining two locals cover about
600 office and technical workers.
    The office and technical workers last negotiated May 21.
Production at Trail and Kimberley has been shut down since the
strike began May 9 and Cominco has had to declare force
majeure, which means the company may be unable to honor
contracts for products from the smelter and mine.
    Each of the five locals have separate contracts, all of
which expired April 30, but the main issues are similar.
    The Trail smelter, about 400 miles east of Vancouver,
produced 240,000 long tons of zinc and 110,000 long tons of
lead last year. The Sullivan mine at Kimberley, about 450 miles
east of Vancouver, produced 2.2 mln long tons of ore last year,
most for processing at the Trail smelter.
    The smelter also produced cadmium, bismuth and indium.
    Trail smelter revenue was 356 mln Canadian dlrs in 1986.
 Reuter
