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Labour Dispute in Canada Worsens for Brazil’s Largest Corporation
To read the coverage of this in the National Post, please click here.
RELEASE, Oct. 21, 2009 – Striking Northern Ontario miners, accompanied by the Great Reaper from the Vale of Death, were on Bay Street today for a demonstration outside Vale Inco’s corporate offices.
Despite Vale’s abrupt cancellation of its own day at the New York Stock Exchange today, strikers from Sudbury and Port Colborne staged their ‘Vale Day’ in Toronto this afternoon.
The strikers were joined outside Vale Inco’s Bay Street offices by Toronto Steelworkers and the Great Reaper from the Vale of Death, who invoked Industry Minister Tony Clement’s vision for Sudbury were it not for Vale’s benevolence.
Brazil-based Vale was scheduled to meet with key investors in New York today and in London on Friday (October 23). Vale appeared to want to hold the investor events prior to releasing its third quarter results on October 28 but the cancellations provide more evidence of a company in disarray.
“Vale has been trying to avoid our shining a light on their managerial record,” said USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann. “Now it appears to be trying to hide from hard questions that might be raised by investors and the media.”
Also today, strikers held a breakfast demonstration at a Vale Inco picket line in Sudbury, striking Steelworkers from Sudbury and Port Colborne were busy hand-billing and meeting investors outside the New York Stock Exchange, while other Steelworkers were joined by their Brazilian allies for a protest at Vale headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.
A similar demonstration is scheduled for London on Friday, when updates on contract negotiations in Canada and Brazil will be provided.
“We want to make it perfectly clear to Vale that we’re not going away, no matter where they run,” said Joe Guido, a USW Local 6500 member from Sudbury.
Some 3,500 Steelworkers from Sudbury, Port Colborne and Voisey’s Bay, N.L., have been on strike since July 13, 2009. The USW wants the company to return to the bargaining table in Canada and calls on its top management to rekindle negotiations.
“It appears that the company has responded positively to (Brazilian) President Lula’s demand for
Vale to invest in Brazilian workers,” said Neumann. “It’s not too much to expect a similar commitment to its Canadian workforce.”
Earlier this week, Vale announced it will invest $12.9 billion in 2010 Brazil, increasing by 12% the staffing at the mining company.
Meanwhile, the USW presses on with its global campaign. Director Neumann and two USW miners on strike against Vale travelled last week to the German port of Brunsbüttel, Germany, following Vale ore mined in Canada. Joined by mining union leaders from Germany, Brazil, South Africa, Japan and other supporters, they conducted a demonstration as the ship transporting 35,000 tons of copper concentrate from Voisey’s Bay arrived.
A group of the leaders then met with the ship’s captain and a ship owners’ representative. The captain and agent were both supportive and said they would raise the issue directly with Vale and would inform the buyers of the copper about the dispute. The USW delegation held other meetings with leaders of unions in Germany and other European countries that have members at Vale operations and the operations of Vale’s customers.
The two striking miners travelling with Neumann, Curtis Saunders and Aaron Beaudry, then headed to Sweden to inform a customer, Boliden, about the strike and Vale’s actions towards workers. Boliden currently purchases copper concentrate from Vale. The Swedish company’s board members were upset by news of the labour situation in Canada and promised to discuss this situation with Vale.
The meeting was arranged by IF Metall, Sweden’s largest private sector union. IF Metall represents workers at Boliden’s copper smelter in Rönnskärsverken that Vale supplies.
“We are receiving tremendous support globally from mining and transport workers’ unions,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “We will go to wherever Vale has operations and tell customers and investors how this company is unfairly treating its workers in Canada, Brazil and elsewhere.”
Vale employees also will reach out to the financial community in London in November, through Workers Uniting, the world’s first international union.
Workers Uniting is a partnership between Unite from the United Kingdom and the USW from the United States and Canada. The global union represents three million workers in North America, the UK & Ireland.
“Through Workers Uniting we are supporting the Vale miners in Canada,” said Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, which represents Vale workers in London and Wales. “Investors must be told about the Canadian struggle to reach fair labour agreements. We stand in support of the USW in their Vale campaign for a fair deal now.”
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Contacts: Bob Gallagher (Canada), 416-434-2221; bgallagher@usw.ca
Wayne Ranick (U.S.), 412-562-2444; wranick@usw.org
Saba Mozakka (U.K.), 07768 693 953; saba.mozakka@unitetheunion.com
You can also visit: www.fairdealnow.ca
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VALE INCO
