16 May, 2012
Labour rights violator Rio Tinto was again targeted for its mistreatment of 780 Canadian steelworkers in Alma, Quebec, at trade union actions in Australia and Switzerland over the past week. The campaign to get Rio Tinto’s tainted medals “Off the Podium” at the London Olympics again gained international attention with protests in Australia and in Switzerland.
The mining giant’s Annual Shareholders Meeting in Brisbane, Australia, on 10 May was marked by loud demonstrations denouncing the lockout in Alma and a list of labour and environmental offenses committed by Rio Tinto around the world.
With the company soon to receive global recognition through the London Olympics, publically linking the conglomerate to the high ideals of the Games by producing the winning athletes’ medals, trade unions around the world are uniting to denounce the besmirching of the Olympics with a company that violates its employees’ basic rights.
The four-month lockout continues in Alma, where members of the United Steelworkers (USW) rejected management attempts to halve salaries by outsourcing the workforce.
The ICEM and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) joined Swiss affiliate UNIA in a loud protest outside the International Olympics Committee (IOC) headquarters on 14 May in Lausanne, Switzerland. While the IOC earlier responded in writing that the responsibility for contracting Rio Tinto lay with the London 2012 Organising Committee of the Games (LOCOG), the head of the IOC President’s Office acknowledged the organisation’s responsibility when confronted by IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina and ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal Ozkan.
The labour leaders had rejected the IOC’s written response and called on the IOC to revisit the issue to ensure the high standards of the Olympics are upheld by removing Rio Tinto-produced medals from the victory stand.
IMF and ICEM filed a complaint on 10 May about against Rio Tinto breaching standards set out in LOCOG's Sustainable Sourcing Code, urging the organisation to implement its complaints mechanism and drop Rio Tinto as an official supplier of the 2012 London Games because of the company's treatment of workers in Alma, Quebec.
See more photos from the Lausanne action here.