28 March, 2011
The United Steelworkers (USW) in North America has created a Unity Council around the Evraz Group, the world’s tenth largest steel producer that is controlled by holding companies connected to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. The steelworkers’ network was formed last week at meetings in the US, and initially will include USW local unions representing 2,600 workers in the western US and western Canada.
The Unity Council is expected to expand globally with the help of ICEM and its coal-mining affiliate in Russia, trade unions in South Africa, and the assistance of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and its affiliates at steel and related mills in Russia, Ukraine, Italy, and the Czech Republic. The company is also expanding in Kazakhstan.
Steve Hunt, Robert LaVenture
Formation of the council “is an important step in bringing workers together across borders to share information, strategies, and plans with respect to a common employer,” said Unity Council Chairman and USW Region 12 Director Robert LaVenture. “Workers across international boundaries know that they need to work together to balance our interests against powerful global companies like Evraz.”
The USW represents workers at steel pipe and tubing mills in Pueblo, Colorado, and in Calgary, Alberta, and Regina, Saskatchewan.
“Ultimately, we would like to see a worldwide group of Evraz workers that is able to meet regularly and work to ensure that the company’s workforce, regardless of country or nationality, is treated fairly and has strong union representation,” added USW Western Canadian Region Director Steve Hunt.
Luxembourg-based Evraz has nine steel mills, five iron ore operations, several coal deposits, and other mine and mill operations, including Highveld Steel and Vanadium in South Africa.
The ICEM’s familiarity with Evraz centres on the company’s major stakes in the Russian coking coal mines of Yuzhkuzbassugol and Raspadskaya, the latter one which saw 90 miners perish in a methane gas blast in May 2010. At Yuzhkuzbassugol, a similar explosion killed miners of ICEM affiliate Russian Independent Coal Miners’ Union (ROSUGLEPROF) in 2007. (See the 2010 ICEM report and the 2007 ICEM report.)