Solidarity is strengthening in the conflict Nickel

Caught on: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3346-

The strike of Canadian miners of the United Steelworkers (ETC) against the Brazilian company Vale-Inco gained intensity on August 1 when 450 Voisey’s Bay miners, in the eastern provinces of Labrador and Newfoundland have walked out. These nickel miners, of copper and cobalt thus join their 3.500 fellow Ontario nickel miners and smelters on strike since 13 July.

Local sections 6500 and 6200 of the USW, in Sudbury and Port Colborne, resist attacks on their work standards launched by Vale, including significant reductions in pensions, productivity bonuses, links to the price index, and increased use of subcontracting which poses a serious threat to job security. The same concessions are claimed in section 9508 of Voisey’s Bay in the form of an autonomous convention.

Visit the strike website to know more.

Although there have been no official talks, USW and Vale-Inco Ontario have concluded, ten days ago, a protocol giving union delegates the right to review subcontractors with the aim of protecting the action of the bargaining units. With the strike in Ontario turning one month old this week and world nickel prices starting to rise as a result of this strike, USW has launched a global campaign to pressure profitable Vale to drop demands that would have disastrous consequences for Canadian miners and their communities.

The USW quickly put the Vale Union Network into action, a network of 150.000 workers made up of 2006 by the”Accord de Sudbury” which binds the unions of CVRD – the employer of the time – of Brazil, you Canada, from Indonesia, from Mozambique and New Caledonia. The network has since expanded and, since the start of the strike in Canada, miners' and other unions in Australia, from Germany, from Peru, from Sweden, from South Africa and other countries answered the call.

The Sudbury Accord sets out six key priorities, including more restrictive collective agreements, capitalization of the company to ensure job security for miners and the elimination of outsourcing and contract work.

In the country of the group's headquarters, the Brazilian trade union federation Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) reaffirmed its support for the deal by issuing a strongly worded statement condemning Vale's behavior as an employer. “In the current international financial crisis, there is no need for workers to pay for a crisis they did not cause”, declared the President of the CUT, Artur Henrique da Silva Santos. At CUT, the USW and the entire Vale Union Network have decreed the 14 August international day of struggle for Canadian strikers.

The USW sent teams of strikers to Brazil to explain what the issues are and the Canadians were convincing in their questioning of the social plan projected by Vale.

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva also denounced the company's social behavior. In an article published in the press, he criticizes CEO Roger Agnelli for Vale's austerity plan in terms of employment and investment and threatens Vale with intervention from the public investment aid bank and the public pension fund for him enforce better social behavior.

In Northern Ontario, the general feeling around the mining towns of Sudbury and Timmons is very favorable to the strikers and everyone thinks, as the Chief Negotiator and District Director said 6 of the USW, Wayne Fraser, that the USW and local communities will not “backtrack” faced with a Vale project that would disrupt the social culture of the region.

Several Canadian unions sent delegations to join strike pickets in Ontario. The local section 598 of the National Automobile Union CAW, itself in conflict with Xstrata and with a collective agreement expiring early 2010, accompanied USW strikers in a demonstration, the 24 July, and paid 5.000 $ Canadians to the USW strike fund. An Ontario public servants union also joined the picket lines and paid 2.800 $.

Delegations from another department representing Vale-Inco workers in Canada, the local section 6166 by Thompson, in the province of Manitoba, arrived last week in northern Ontario and provided much appreciated support. It will then be up to the local section 9508 of Voisey’s Bay of the USW to benefit from the same outpouring of solidarity.

As for the ICEM, who closely followed the negotiations last spring, then the expanded talks in Ontario and Labrador, between May and July, by which the USW tried in vain to dissuade Vale from committing the irreparable, she calls on global unionism and all of civil society to oppose Vale’s projects in Canada.

Knowing that Vale is largely profitable and the role it plays with two other large mining groups in driving up ore prices, the Secretary General of the ICEM, Manfred Warda, to dit “We demand that Vale resume negotiations and renounce this socially irresponsible project by a national company that is aggressively entering global mining markets.”

“The ICEM and the large family of its affiliates around the world say NO to this aggression by Vale against the living conditions of Canadian workers and we urge Vale to keep the promises it made on the social level during the acquisition of 'Inco, in 2006.”

otherwise, ICEM notes that Vale claims reduced operating margins, calculated according to profit less taxes and interest charges. For the first trimester 2009, operating margins fell by 12%. This is only one of the reasons why Canadian miners have set a limit in this conflict by refusing reductions in social spending and conventional retrocessions..

As markets begin to feel the effects of strikes in Canada, ICEM reaffirms its full support for 4.000 strikers of Vale-Inco and invites all unions to provide their assistance in an ostensible manner. The fight that local sections are waging 6500 and 6200 of the USW of Sudbury and Port Colborne and the section 9508 de Voisey’s Bay marks a milestone in the financial crisis…and more particularly the recovery. The defense of social advances that protect people is a fight that deserves, especially at that time, everyone's support.

Once more, please visit the site www.fairdealnow.ca to find out how you can help.