Yellowknife (Apr 21/06) - The public relations battle between the owners of the Ekati diamond mine and the union representing striking workers grew more heated Wednesday.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada released a series of e-mails between BHP Billiton employees in which a manager advises the company to "tone down" talk of its profitability in public statements.

"It makes it tougher to negotiate tighter unit rates, workplace agreements, reduced regulatory and monitoring programs ... on our terms when people keep hearing how highly deep our pockets are," wrote Grant Farrows, a business improvement manager with BHP Billiton in an April 2004 e-mail.

BHP Billiton spokesperson Deana Twissell said the union is in possession of stolen company property. She said the company is seeking legal advice but declined to give details.

"I don't know how they received it, but it's our property," said Twissell.

Jean Francois Des Lauriers, PSAC's regional executive vice-president, wasn't letting on how his union came across the e-mails. And even though the e-mails are two years old, Des Lauriers said they point to "a conscious effort on their part to lowball" the company's financial position to lower union expectations for an agreement.

"They don't seem to be prepared to describe reality according to what it really is," he said.

Des Lauriers said the tone of BHP Billiton's communications changed shortly after the e-mails were circulated.

But Ekati's vice-president of operations Richard Morland viewed the leak differently.

"This is yet another union tactic to garner media attention," he said in a news release.

There's no word on whether the two sides will head back to the bargaining table. Some of the mine's 375 unionized employees continue to work. The union is striking to press for better wages and changes to contracting out and seniority rules.

Twissell said the company is not willing to budge on contracting and seniority.

"The ball is in (the union's) court," she said.

"If they want to negotiate they've got our number."