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19 April, 2010
The ICEM’s Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Organisation (SSARO), at its Executive Committee Meeting in Dakar, Senegal, 6 April, adopted a resolution of strong solidarity and support for the striking Canadian Vale workers.
The Resolution marked the Vale ‘Week of Action’ of 5-11 April, called to denounce to denounce Vale Inco’s attacks on workers in Canada and throughout the world. Vale, the second biggest mining company in the world, operates in 36 countries.
More than 3,000 Steelworkers in Sudbury, Port Colborne, and Voisey’s Bay, Newfoundland, Canada, are into the ninth month of a strike, the longest ever at Inco. While the company persists with its demands on profit-sharing, pensions, job security, outsourcing, and seniority rights. Vale continues to refuse to enter into a binding arbitration, as instructed under Canada’s labour laws.
The SSARO Resolution comes in light of the 50/50 joint venture between Vale and African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), a South African mining company that will act as a gateway for Vale to Africa’s mineral resources.
ICEM SSARO affiliates resolved to lobby their governments, national centres, NGOs, and communities, to condemn and take concrete actions in support of the struggle.
View the Resolution in its entirety here.
View the USW Vale strikers’ campaign website here.