Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 05/99) - Workers at Baffin Island's Nanisivik mine have gotten together -- and may soon stand together in a union.

The United Steelworkers of America applied last Monday to the Canada Labour Relation Board for union certification for the mine's approximately 160 workers.

Union organizer Gilles Deslauriers said from Kamloops, B.C., on Wednesday that the union had submitted the workers' signed cards to the labour board in Vancouver. He said that with a minimum of 35 per cent worker support, the application will go forward, and with 50 per cent, certification will be automatic.

Deslauriers said he had just returned from Nanisivik, a mine he said has long withstood unionization.

"Nanisivik was known to be untouchable," he said. "They are so far to the North and so remote, they thought we'd never get there."

Deslauriers said organization efforts began in January when, as one worker described, "we made a desperation call from the site."

Speaking from Nanisivik on Wednesday, the worker said frustration had built up among workers who had previously been afraid to speak out.

"When I stepped forward and they found out I didn't get fired, the whole effort picked up steam," he said, asking not to be identified in print.

Hailing from Newfoundland, the worker said he's been employed at Nanisivik since 1981, and rhymed off a litany of complaints -- including inferior wages, being charged room and board, little time off and unequal treatment of workers to keep them divided.

"Nanisivik is like a grand human experiment because we don't operate with a policy book or anything," he said.

The mine is owned by Breakwater Resources, a division of CanZinco Ltd., and produces zinc as well as other metals like lead. According to the company's Web site, the mine is in its 22nd year of continuous production, was purchased by Breakwater in 1996, and earned $12.4 million on net sales revenue of $46 million when a record 805,000 tonnes of ore was mined in 1997.

Speaking from Toronto on Thursday, Breakwater corporate vice-president of administration, Bill Heath, said the mine has approximately five more years of "life" in it. He said the company deals with unions at some of its overseas mining operations and will comply with its obligations in Canada.

"The board has asked us to provide certain, basic information, and we'll provide them with that," he said, "and by and large it's in the hands of the board."