21 September, 2009
Some 3,000 people crowded into the Sudbury, Ontario, ice hockey arena on 19 September and enthusiastically greeted global trade union leaders in what was billed as an “International and Community Rally in Support of Sudbury’s Strikers.”
International union leaders, including ICEM’s Manfred Warda, Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) General Secretary Jyrki Raina, Sharan Burrow, President of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and Ken Georgetti, President of the Canadian Labour Congress, joined others to tell striking miners of the United Steelworkers (USW) that their nine-week strike against Vale has gained worldwide attention, and brought trade union pressure on Vale in all its global operations.
“Your struggle has now got the support and attention of the entire global union movement,” said the ICEM’s Warda. “This conflict now has a global dimension, from nickel miners in Indonesia to mining communities in Africa and, of course, to miners and metalworkers in Brazil, this fight is now our fight, and we will assist in every way possible for a sustainable future for you and your families here in northern Ontario.”
USW Local 6500 President John Fera, with rally speakers behind him
The strike started on 13 July after USW Locals 6500 in Sudbury and Local 6200 in Port Colborne, joined in a common labour contract, gave the world’s number two nickel producer a ten-week extension back in May. But instead of reaching agreement, based on Vale’s vast profit margins despite the global downturn, managers of nickel entity Vale-Inco pressed ahead with concession-ridden proposals that would deflate the livelihoods of 3,500 workers and their families in Sudbury and in Port Colborne, 400 kilometres south on Lake Erie.
Those concessionary proposals, still on the table, include retirement reductions, a two-tiered pension scheme, steep downgrades to a production bonus, and loss of value in cost-of-living adjustments. As well, Vale-Inco is seeking greater flexibility on outsourcing, standing as a serious affront to job security.
On 1 August, 450 workers of USW Local 9508 in Voiseys Bay, Labrador, struck. Miners and smelter workers there, employed at Vale’s nickel, copper, and cobalt mines and a processing enterprise, are under a separate labour agreement than the one in Ontario, but Vale’s income-wrecking proposals are the same.
Saturday’s rally by the USW was meant to show strikers – as well as the rest of Canada and the world’s mining industry – that global labour will stand together to prevent a prosperous mining house from boosting its profit sheet at the expense of workers.
From left: USW's Leo Gerard; Carolyn Kazdin, USW rep in Brazil; Eduardo Fernando Jardim Pinto (STEFEM-Brazil); and Ken Neumann, USW Canadian Director and ICEM Vice President
Those attending the rally were energized and excited to hear speakers from across the globe come to northern Ontario to address their issues.
USW President Leo Gerard, who opened the rally, said the Brazilian company picked the wrong group of workers to start a fight with. “This strike will determine what kind of future we’ll have, and what kind of future our kids and grandkids will have,” said Gerard, a native of Sudbury and a member of USW Local 6500.
Following Gerard, Burrow, who also heads the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), told those assembled, “You are standing up to the biggest corporate bully in the world. Congratulations … you are standing up for yourselves, for your children, and for your community.”
Another trade union leader, Artur Henrique da Silva Santos, President of Brazil’s Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), said Vale is not living up to the “big deal it makes about corporate social responsibilities” by its assault on workers in Canada, and vowed that Brazilian workers will stand with the USW throughout and beyond this fight.
Jack Layton, national leader of the Canadian NDP party, brought striking steelworkers and their families to their feet when he said, “You’re going to win this battle, my friends.” This company “cannot take away what working people have built over generations in this country and this town.”
Other speakers included General Secretary Jorge Campos of the Brazilian mining union Sindimina-RJ (CNTSM), who is secretary of the Vale Union Network of Workers, and Paul Talbot, Assistant General Secretary of Unite the Union from the Amicus Section in the UK.
USW National Canadian Director Ken Neumann said, “We recognise that the only way we’re going to win this strike is we’re going to need the support from our allies around the world.” With Saturday’s showing of international union leaders, there is little question that global support for the Canadian strikers is alive, with trade union pressure worldwide beginning to mount against Vale.
More coverage on the strike can be found at www.fairdealnow.ca.