Workers Uniting Confronts Vale Executives at Investors’ Meeting
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LONDON, 9 Nov 2009 – Members of Unite the Union picketed today outside a Deutsche Bank metals conference in the City of London. The protest organized by the global union Workers Uniting was in support of striking mineworkers from Vale Inco in Canada.
Two Canadian strikers, members of the United Steelworkers (USW) union, joined the picket to press the case to investors attending the Deutsche Bank meeting where Vale executives were making a presentation.
“The protest is the first of many actions to be organized by Workers Uniting that will confront Vale investors during this dispute,” said Ken Neumann, USW National Director for Canada.
Vale workers in Canada are on indefinite strike to defend their pay and conditions. Vale wants to impose drastic cuts to pensions and other benefits of the Canadian miners. The workers see it as the thin end of the wedge as they believe the company wants to push wages and conditions down to the level of their operations in Brazil.
“Vale Inco is a greedy multinational backed by Wall Street cash,” said Unite Joint General Secretary Derek Simpson. “Their mining operation in Canada is hugely profitable, yet they are putting the squeeze on our brothers and sisters in Workers Uniting to satisfy the insatiable appetite of the financial institutions that gave us the credit crunch.
“The message we are here to deliver to would-be investors is that Vale Inco aren’t only fighting their workforce they are fighting the global union too.”
Workers around the globe are sending a “powerful message” to Vale and the investment community, said USW International President Leo W. Gerard.
“Mining natural resources has been a profitable enterprise for generations in Sudbury, Canada for both the company and the workers. For a multinational company to now attempt to slash living standards while enjoying sky-rocketing profits is totally unacceptable,” Gerard said.
“Workers in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and around the world understand this, and the workers’ solidarity and actions send a powerful message.”
Vale’s “backward, outdated approach to labour relations also is bad for investors,” noted Ken Neumann.
“Vale’s own reports indicate the Canadian labour dispute that it provoked is costing the company $7 million (US dollars) in lost production each day,” Neumann said. “We are standing together as Workers Uniting in saying it’s time for Vale to get back to the bargaining table and make a fair offer that benefits shareholders, workers and their communities.”
The picket began at 7:30 a.m. at Deutsche Bank, Winchester House, 1 Winchester Street, London.
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Further details please contact: Richard O’Brien, London, +447768 931 320; Saba Mozakka, London, +447768 693 953; Bob Gallagher, Canada: (416) 544 5966
- Notes to Editors:
Workers Uniting is the world’s first global union formed of Unite the Union in the UK and Ireland and the USW in the USA and Canada.
For more information on the global union or the Vale Inco dispute go to www.workersuniting.org
For more information on the Vale Inco strike campaign please visit: www.fairdealnow.ca
