Bloomberg reported that Latin America’s biggest steelmaker Gerdau SA has called a meeting with United Steelworkers Union officials on December 2nd 2009 in a bid to end a six month strike at its steel mill at Cambridge in Ontario in Canada.

Mr Tom Walsh, coordinator for USW’s south central Ontario region, said by telephone from Cambridge that Gerdau’s North America unit has contacted union officials last week,

He said that “The union is open to discussing how to resume normal operations after a Gerdau proposal was rejected earlier this year.”

Mr Walsh said that management has kept the mill operating at a reduced rate since then, he said.

All 190 workers at the Cambridge mill stopped work on May 16th 2009 after turning down a proposal to introduce a contribution based pension plan for new hires, replacing the previous defined benefit system.

(Sourced from Bloomberg)