Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 21/99) - Miramar Mining Corporation has confirmed some Con employees will be going back to work as early as Thursday, following a meeting with representatives from the United Steelworkers Local 802 and mine managers.

Senior Vice-President for Miramar, Brian Labadie, said the company is glad to be going back into production.

"Both parties are just pleased to be going back to work," Labadie said, following the Tuesday meeting.

"I think both of us would have liked something different, but that is the art of negotiation."

Labadie said some workers will be returning this week and production is expected to resume by mid-May.

"We'll be starting to bring some people back as early as Thursday," Labadie said.

"They'll be doing some of the mechanical work and getting ready to go back underground."

The maintenance crews will be the first to go in and to get the mine back in shape, Labadie said.

"We'll start to bring some of the operating crews back in a couple of weeks, but we probably won't be mining until somewhere around the middle of May," he said. "Our expectation is that we will be back to full production by July."

Labadie said they may have lost some employees over the course of the strike, but feels it shouldn't affect the mine.

"If we have to replace some people who have left permanently, I'm sure we won't have a problem filling the positions," he said.

"There are not a lot of jobs in mining in Canada right now, with metal prices being in the tanks, so there are probably a lot of good people out there."

Con miners voted to go back to work last Friday, ending the longest strike in the gold mine's 60-year history.

After being out for nearly a year, United Steelworkers Local 802 voted to accept Miramar's latest offer.

Union President, Cliff Moroz, said the members in favour of the offer showed a clear majority in the vote.

"It was in the high eighties," Moroz said. "The vote has been ratified and there are some good issues in there."

The weekend work issue has been a major bone of contention throughout the strike. Moroz said the workers claimed victory in the new deal.

"It's now a defined work week -- it's Monday to Friday," he said.

Another victory for the union was with the job posting clause, he said.

In the new contract, Moroz said any worker may now apply for any job posted within the mine.

"If you've got the qualifications and seniority to do that job, you have control of your own destiny even if someone does take a disliking to you," he said.

The new deal also ensures that membership will not lose seniority while they walked the line, Moroz said. "The time spent on strike will go to their pension and their seniority."

Con worker, Lindsay Mair, said he's satisfied with the agreement and looks forward to getting back to work.

"I'm quite happy with the agreement and I'm glad that the majority of the membership has accepted it as well," he said.

"I'm not too happy that we're going into another

three years of no wage increase, but I'm glad to be going back to work," he smiled.

Mair, who is a heavy duty mechanic said while he attended picket duty he would pass the time by working on other striker's vehicles.

He also worked sporadically throughout the strike and found it hard very hard to make ends meet.

"It was tough," he said. "Very tough to try and make enough to live in Yellowknife."