Members of Algoma Steel’s largest union have given a strike mandate to their bargaining committee.
Mike Da Pratt, president of United Steelworkers Local 2251, announced late Monday night that members had voted 99 percent in favor of the strike authorization.
Voting was conducted by secret ballot on Monday at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
Local 2251 represents about 2,000 hourly workers.
A vote to authorize a strike is not a vote to call an immediate strike, but it does put the steelworkers in a legal strike position.
The current collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of this month.
The Sault steelmaker recently reported fourth-quarter net income of $243 million, up from $100 million in the same period last year.
It also announced the largest payout to an employee in its 121-year history: $151 million in total profit-sharing payments for the 2022 fiscal year.
Da Prat argued that Algoma’s current fiscal health indicates that the company needs to share some of that wealth with workers who have repeatedly made concessions over the years to ensure Algoma’s survival.
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