Global Support Reaffirmed for Steelworkers Strike Against Vale

Sudbury, 23 March, 2010 – Working people in several countries will hold public demonstrations and events next month during a “Global Week of Action” to denounce Vale Inco’s aggressive, destructive attacks on workers and communities.

The April 5-11 week of action was announced today, a day after more than 5,000 people marched and rallied in Sudbury to support Canadian workers under attack by Brazil-based Vale.

More than 3,000 Steelworkers in Sudbury, Port Colborne and Voisey’s Bay, NL, are in the ninth month of a strike against Vale and its contract-gutting demands on profit-sharing, pensions, job security, contracting out and seniority rights.

“Canadian workers and their resource-based communities currently are the most-prominent targets of Vale’s damaging, regressive agenda,” said Ken Neumann, United Steelworkers National Director for Canada.

“But Vale employees in other countries know they also face similar attacks on their working and living standards and their collective rights to build a better future for their families and communities,” Neumann said.

“This is why international labour leaders are joining with the United Steelworkers in a Global Week of Action against Vale’s behaviour.”

“When the USW succeeds in signing a fair contract with Vale, we all win,” said Rogerio Pantoja, National Executive Board member of Brazil’s CUT (Central Unica dos Trabalhadores).

“The strike is just and our solidarity will break the intransigence of Vale’s leadership,” said Efraim Gomes de Moura, a Coordinator of Brazil’s CONLUTAS (Coordenacao Nacional de Lutas).

After announcing the Global Week of Action today, dozens of international union leaders released a joint statement denouncing Vale’s behaviour towards workers and communities.

“We continue to stand in solidarity with striking Canadian workers, their families, and communities in Port Colborne, Sudbury, and Voisey’s Bay,” the statement reads.

“Together we again call on Vale to return to the bargaining table and to negotiate a fair deal for workers in Canada. We remind governments of their responsibility to ensure that any nation’s national resources must be developed for the benefit of their citizens and communities.”

Participants in this campaign include unions and labour organizations from Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America, including the Ontario Federation of Labour and Canadian Labour Congress.