Rio Tinto Alcan workers gather in Alma, Que., to vote on contract offer

ALMA, Que. – Locked-out workers at the Rio Tinto Alcan plant gathered Thursday to vote on a tentative deal that might end their seven-month labour dispute.

Voting began during the day and the results were expected to be known late Thursday night.

“We’re holding our breath, that’s for sure,” said Alma Mayor Marc Asselin, who said the lockout has hit the local economy hard.

“We’re talking about small- and medium-sized services and sub-contractors, local businesses that have had to postpone contracts. People had to go on unemployment insurance during this period. There was a domino effect.”

The 780 Rio Tinto Alcan workers were locked out on Jan. 1.

One of the key issues was outsourcing. The aluminum company wanted to replace retiring workers with sub-contractors that would be paid lower wages.

During the dispute, the union also denounced the company’s continued operation of its dams and the selling of its electricity production to Hydro-Quebec.

Asselin said a positive outcome would bring welcome relief to the community, which has been watching its pennies over the last few months.

“In the last six months, people have been careful with their expenses, careful with their investments because they didn’t know when the conflict would end.”

Kathleen Voyer, director general of the Lac-St-Jean-Est chamber of commerce and industry, said that prudence was clearly evident.

“We saw a slowdown on the construction side, also in renovations and at the level of the car dealers,” she said. “It was the same thing in the beauty treatment sector, for example. These were the sectors that were affected more than the others.”

Asselin said economic restraint was also exercised by the town, which was careful about how it spent its funds.