The rise of precarious employment and the loss of union power in the Sudbury Mining Industry, 1969–2020

Abstract

This dissertation explores the rise of precarious employment and its relationship to union power within the Sudbury, Ontario, Canada mining industry between 1969 and 2020. Utilizing a case study of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500, this research maps periods of negotiations, labour strife, and the 2006 sale of the International Nickel Company (Inco) to Vale S. A. (formerly Companhia Vale do Rio Doce) as catalysts for shifts in power for the union. These events are interpreted through the theoretical lens of political economy informed by the work of Leah F. Vosko’s theorization of precarious employment. I argue that a decline in union power is correlated to the rise of precarious employment within the industry and the union’s shift away from a mandate of embeddedness in the local community. The union’s ability to control contracting out has been limited by neoliberal management strategies focused on cost-cutting and labour flexibility through the divestment of non-core mining activities and staff; change in ownership, which globalized the industry; and legislative and policy changes that have increasingly shifted bargaining power away from workers and unions, towards corporate control. The union also missed opportunities to engage in a more holistic or socially aware view of union power. The change within the Sudbury mining industry from a high level of standard employment to precarious employment and the union’s movement away from community embeddedness has paralleled a significant change in workers’ subject position, degrading the richness of the narrative resources of unions, which have in turn contributed to a weakening of union power. The case is built on the analysis of: (1) 35 semi- structured, individual interviews with union officials, current and retired mine workers, and industry key informants; (2) an examination of contracting out language from 13 of USW Local 6500’s collective agreements from 1969 to 2020; and (3) archival documents from USW Local 6500, union leaders, and Sudbury politicians. The multi-method approach is pursuant of an integrative, interdisciplinary analysis of precarious employment within the Sudbury mining industry and of its relationship to union power. The findings conclude that since the late 1960s, Inco and the company’s successor, Vale, adopted a staffing strategy to limit the size of the directly employed, unionized workforce through contracting out. The prevalence of precarious employment within the Sudbury mining industry demonstrates this form of employment is a risk to even longstanding, powerful unions such as USW Local 6500.