According to a statement from Essar Algoma, the mediator has scheduled sessions for later this month. The collective bargaining agreement between United Steelworkers and Essar Algoma has expired last summer, and the union has since been working under an extension. 

Securing a new labor agreement is a key to Essar Algoma’s successful exit from creditor protection, under which it has been operating since late 2015.  

“Our focus is on emerging from CCAA as a strong and sustainable advanced steel manufacturer. We remain optimistic that a deal can be achieved among all stakeholders that ensures this outcome,” Essar Algoma chief executive Kalyan Ghosh said in a statement. 

But that may be easier said than done. The union rank-and-file have voted to authorize a strike, should union leader deem one necessary. At the same time, the union is, for the time being, refusing to participate in mediation, reports the local news website SooToday.com.  

Steelworkers Local 2251 president Mike Da Prat told the publication that the union will refuse to enter mediation until a court clarifies which set of labor laws ought to be brought to bear on bargaining process, those under the federal Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act or the ordinary bargaining laws under the provincial Labour Relations Act. 

Da Prat said that under the creditor protection laws, the union would be negotiating with Essar Algoma’s lenders, which are attempting to buy the business. Under the Labour Relations Act, the union would be bargaining with Essar Algoma management.  

"We refused to go to the mediation sessions because no one would give us the assurance that we're either negotiating under the Labour Relations Act or the CCAA,” Da Prat told the publication. 

"We're not going to be whip-sawed back and forth so that the employer has the hammer, the threat, of the no-board report, and we negotiate with them, resolve a number of issues, then we go into CCAA under a mediator, who, to get a deal, doesn't take into account what's already been settled, and now we're going to start mediating further concessions.” 

About 95% of Essar Algoma’s employees are organized under the United Steelworkers union, with one local representing hourly employees and another representing salaried employees. 

SooToday.com has more on the story here.