Summary
April 30, 1942, Local 598 International Union of Mine Mill and Smelter Workers was formed.
December 1943, Votes were held at both Inco and Falconbridge, at Inco 6,913 voted for Mine mill, 1,187 for UCNW, 675 for no union and 1,866 did not vote.
Falconbridge out of the 959 miners the ones who voted 769 of them voted for Mine Mill.
Feb 4, 1944, Mine Mill became the bargaining unit for Inco and Falconbridge.
May 3, 1944, Mine Mill was certified the bargaining unit for sulphuric acid plant.
June 15, 1944, Mine Mill had negotiated a contract.
June 28, 1945, James Kidd was elected president for the Union.
Dec 8, 1947, Nels Thibault was elected in for the Union.
Aug 24, 1951, Mike Solski took over for presidency as Thibault took a position as regional director for District 8.
Mine Mill had built union halls in Sudbury, Garson, Coniston, Creighton, and Chelmsford during the time of 1951 and 1960.
Sept 12-13, 1958, Mine Mill members voted to strike at Inco.
Sept 24, 1958, the strike started.
Dec 22, 1958, the strike ended with a wage increase of one, two, and three percentage over the three-year contract.
August 30, 1959, Falconbridge miners started down a path to establish there own Local 1025.
March 18, 1960, Local 1025 placed in an application to the Ontario Labor Relation Board.
March 26, 1960, Local 598 filed an intervention against Local 1025.
April 27, 1960, miners at Falconbridge walked out at Hardy Mine due to the company forcing miners to wear safety glasses to help reduce the company’s insurance premiums.
May 4, 1960, the Ontario Labor Relation Board agreed with Local 598.
Oct 15, 1962, United Steelworkers Union won the fight for Inco and became the bargaining unit for them.
Early 1964 Steelworkers Union wanted to talk with Mine Mill National about merging the two unions. At this time Mine Mill National was not interested in it.
August 20, 1965, Steelworkers Union tried to take over Falconbridge but failed for the second time.
June 21, 1966, Steelworkers Union tried a third time to take over Falconbridge and failed.
July 15, 1966, to August 7, 1966 – Wildcat strike at Inco.
July 10, 1969, to November 14, 1969 – Steelworkers strike at Inco.
August 21, 1969, to November 22, 1969 – Mine Mill strike at Falconbridge.
As of the late 1960’s Mine Mill 598 is the only local still active and did not merge with the United Steelworkers of America.
In 1993 Mine Mill still autonomous, merged with the Canadian Auto Workers.
In August 2013 CAW merged with CEP to become Unifor.