How sad to read the story in today’s Star about the8-month old strike at Inco (now known as Vale Inco) in Sudbury.
“A failure to communicate” is the heading.
“My disappointment is watching from afar is to see both sides missing each other in almost every conversation”, the former COO of the organization is quoted.
The Steelworkers Union blames a “clash of cultures”.
The adversarial model of dispute resolution is profoundly outdated. Here you have two sides with nothing to lose– and everything to gain– by sitting down and trying to find common ground. Of which they have plenty.
But instead there is only “intransigence, finger pointing and verbal warfare” according to the story.
Read the story and decide for yourself. For an excellent, more in-depth and very moving account of this strike, read John Gray’s cover story in the Globe’s April Report on Business: Nickelled and Damned.
