The Ontario Labour Relations Board has ‘directed’ both sides in the 10 month strike at Vale Inco back to the bargaining table. In a decision rendered 17 May 2010, board chair Kevin Whitaker concluded negotiators for Vale Inco and Steelworkers Local 6500 should return to bargaining with a provincial conciliator to discuss all outstanding issues in the dispute excluding the nine union members fired during the strike at the company’s Sudbury operations. The union wanted the board to hold an expedited hearing on the firing of the nine and the company’s assertion it will definitely not rehire them when the labour dispute is settled. That issue is a major stumbling block in concluding a new collective agreement, union lawyer Brian Shell argued during hearings held Friday, 14 May. Mr Whitaker, representing a three-member panel that also included Carol Philips and Paul Lemay, suggested the issue of the fired nine be set aside while the two sides negotiate other issues. If all other issues are settled, but the fired employees remains the only hurdle to a settlement, then the union can bring the issue back to the OLRB for a ruling.