TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) have downed tools at base metals miner HudBay Minerals’ Manitoba operations.

The TSX- and NYSE-listed miner reported that 180 members of union Local No 1848 began a strike at noon on Saturday. The striking workers represented about 12% of HudBay's 1 460-person Manitoba workforce.

The company reported that a comprehensive contingency plan was in place and that it expected operations would continue as normal and its full-year guidance would not to be impacted.

HudBay said it sought a mutually negotiated agreement over several months and did not believe the strike action was necessary. The company remained committed to the bargaining process and hoped the union leadership would engage in good-faith negotiations.

The association on Friday said in a statement that negotiations between the parties had failed because “management never wavered from their opening stance, leaving the workers with only one option – strike.”

“This bargaining process never stood a chance. None of the outstanding language issues were addressed and the wage enhancements still leave us far behind the wages paid to apprentices and certified trades at sites in The Pas and Thompson, Manitoba,” IAM grand lodge representative Ian Morland said, adding that HudBay had rejected a union offer for an orderly shutdown.

“They believe they can run the equipment without us. But we repair and maintain this equipment and it will break down if it is not maintained properly. This could have been avoided,” he noted.

He indicated that the union was willing to resume bargaining at any time, “provided the employer has something better to offer”.

Analysts at Desjardins Capital Markets said they expected the strike to be short lived. "HudBay has a long record of positive relationships with its unions – this is the first strike at the company’s operations since 1971," they wrote in a note to clients.

HudBay had a substantial footprint in Manitoba, where it operated the 777, the Lalor zinc/copper/gold/silver mines, the Reed high-grade copper project, as well as processing complexes in Flin Flon and Snow Lake.