RE:RE:VOTE on monday for offer to workersOops sorry for the double posting - what happens when you use a phone and cell service to post, instead of wi-fi. I just get so mad I have to post when the feeliing hits me! I apologize for an earlier comment - normally you would think a union with no bargaining position would cave in and the strike would be short, not long as I suggested. In the case of Noranda, there is a strong bargaining position and I should have mentioned that, as the reason for the long strike. The position the union has is simply the high price of zinc. I maintain that Noranda has been completely focused on the whole "rip off the shareholders using market rates as a pretext" thing, and forced a strike, using as the casus belli pension plan changes, to put more pressure on the shares (ie the strike was the reason to cut the divvie), and in the process completely lost sight of the fact that had they been running they could have been stockpiling zinc like mad and could now sell it into a tight market. Now they have to go cap in hand to the union, who will be in no mood to accomodate them. The thing about unions is that they never forget, and they will not go back to work just because anyone else thinks they should. I have seen the inside of unions and I know that they are not easily swayed, in fact quite the reverse - the more pressure from outside there is, the stiffer their backbones become. Of course, it helps them that zinc prices are public knowledge, and they can see as can anyone that the profit that is being made by Glencore, from mine to customer delivery, has hit a ten year high. It is only fair that the workers be treated reasonably, as should the shareholders. This is what continues to make me so mad - because the stupidity of the company is hurting us, and we seem to be unable to do anything about it. If it is true that the strike is about pension plan changes, and to be fair to the company I do not know if that is the case, just that it has been stated publicly, the extra costs to the company can be easily covered by the higher price of zinc in a tight market and by higher TC's in a loose market. If they had to break many years of labour peace you'd think they would have found a better reason - like when the exisitng Canadian mines run out of concentrate. I still don't understand Glencore's gameplan, and it is hard to believe that there is not some hidden agenda, but in the meantime all of us shareholders have been feeling a great deal of pain, unneccessarily in my view.