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The US labour board has issued a blanket unfair labour practice complaint against Covanta Energy at more than 50 worksites across America. The charge was brought by ICEM-affiliated Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), which organised Covanta staff at a worksite in Rochester, Massachusetts, in May 2008, but has since been unable to secure a first collective agreement because of company intransigence. 
 
Covanta is a waste-to-energy company that operates incinerators and then sells electric power generated from those incinerators to local grids. The ICEM has assisted the UWUA in its first contract fight over the past several months by tracking the company as it seeks new contracts in Ireland and the UK. The ICEM has alerted trade unions, public officials, and environmental groups of the Chicago-based company&rsquo;s anti-union bias. 
 
The US labour law complaint, issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), cites the company with numerous illegal work rules, as outlined in its employees&rsquo; manual. Such violations include threatening to terminate workers for providing any information &ndash; such as environmental or health and safety &ndash; to government regulators, news media, or other &ldquo;outside representatives.&rdquo; 

<img height="160" alt="" src="" width="216" />
The NLRB complaint also challenges a Covanta rule prohibiting distribution of &ldquo;unauthorised&rdquo; material on &ldquo;company property&rdquo; or on &ldquo;company time,&rdquo; a form of anti-union bias that has been illegal in the US for 60 years. Other Covanta workplace policies ruled illegal include guidelines prohibiting workers from discussing their wages with each other, or from wearing &ldquo;political slogans&rdquo; while at work. 
 
The UWUA filed the charge in Massachusetts but since Covanta uses the same employees&rsquo; manual at all US worksites, the NLRB issued the nationwide complaint at all company locations. Only a handful of Covanta&rsquo;s 50 plus workplaces are unionised. 
 
&ldquo;We want Covanta employees everywhere to know that our union will stand up for their rights, not only in Massachusetts but at every other Covanta location,&rdquo; said Gary Sullivan, President of UWUA Local 369, which represents the 130 Covanta workers in Massachusetts. 
 
As Covanta seeks to expand its trash to electric energy business globally, the ICEM will continue to alert social partners of its anti-worker policies in the US.

Covanta Energy Violates US Labour Law

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The ICEM has intervened in efforts to prevent harsh discipline this week against an Iraqi trade unionist, who is being persecuted for leading a protest in order to gain wage arrears for workers at the State Company for Petrochemical Industries (SCPI). (See previous story&nbsp;<a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3024-Iraqi-State-Petrochemical-Company-Uses-Military-to-Bust-Peaceful-Protest">here</a>.) 
 
The ICEM learned over the weekend that Kareem Johi Sahan, a trade union leader for the Petrochemical Workers&rsquo; Union of Basra, is scheduled to be punished Thursday, 26 February, for his role in leading the 28 January workers&rsquo; protest. Following several weeks of interrogation of Johi and three other union leaders, Johi faces the possibility of immediate discharge, or reductions to his salary. 
 
The ICEM also has learned that the severe interrogations have inflicted Johi with heart problems. 

<img height="200" alt="" src="" width="223" />
Kareem Johi (centre) handling leaflets at an October 2008 demonstration
SCPI is 100% owned by Iraq&rsquo;s Ministry of Industry and Minerals. In a letter dated today to MIM Minister Fawzi al-Hariri, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda urged the ministry to intervene directly with management of the enterprise to prevent any form of discipline this week. (See that letter <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/16%20letter%20to%20Petrochem%20Iraq%20-%2023%20Feb09.pdf">here</a>.) 
 
Kareem Johi, 51, is a recognised trade union leader of the Petrochemical Workers&rsquo; Union of Basra at SCPI, who, since the end of 2006, has used internationally-recognised free speech and assembly to draw attention to remuneration claims, cuts in fuel subsidies to workers, and other regressive policies by SCPI management. 
 
SCPI is Iraq&rsquo;s only petrochemicals complex, employing 5,000 workers, and its six plants produce ethylene, polyethylene, vinyl chloride, and other chemicals.

ICEM Seeks Halt to Discipline of Iraqi Trade Union Leader at Petrochemicals Complex

USW Local 9700, one of the first unions to respond at the time of the 30 December lockout and representing Alcoa ABI workers at B&eacute;cancour, Qu&eacute;bec, voted unanimously to draw C$25-per-week from their paychecks, donating C$25,000 weekly to Local 9490.<img alt="" src="" style="width: 140px;height: 68px" width="390" />

	Locked-out members of Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos &nbsp;d&rsquo;Alma Local 9490, the United Steelworkers (USW), took their fight against Rio Tinto Alcan to Qu&eacute;bec&rsquo;s largest city, last Friday, 17 February, where Alcan CEO Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute; was part of a spurious forum on youth in employment, sponsored by the Board of Trade Metropolitan Montr&eacute;al.

	Some 200 of 780 metalworkers from Alcan&rsquo;s Alma aluminium smelter in the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region, Qu&eacute;bec, boarded buses and travelled 460 kilometres to Montr&eacute;al for a noisy protest at this business luncheon, their first manifestation away from the 488,000-tonne-per-year smelter. They were joined by another 100 steelworkers from Montr&eacute;al, and some 100 college students who joined the USW rally in mocking protest to a future&nbsp;youth theme that now sees business teaming with the Liberal provincial government of Qu&eacute;bec to raise their university tuition fees.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 248px;height: 161px" width="390" />

	17 February Manifestation, Montr&eacute;al

	This &ldquo;Hot Issues@Lunch&rdquo; theme was billed to &ldquo;foster the success of the next generation of Qu&eacute;becers.&rdquo; &nbsp;&nbsp;The Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma found deep irony in Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute; participating, since Alcan in Alma is using a lock-out to replace C$36-an-hour permanent jobs with outsourced and presumably younger workers at C$16-an-hour.

	C&ocirc;t&eacute; was not expected to address the lockout at the hot-plate lunch, but when pressed by reporters on the sidelines, she called the dispute a &ldquo;regional issue&rdquo; and &ldquo;it will be settled in Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean&rdquo; by managers who &ldquo;have my full confidence.&rdquo;

	Earlier last week, when the lockout entered week seven and with the remote mining and manufacturing region starting to feel the economic effects of a lost wage base, one such manager told Reuters he &ldquo;wouldn&rsquo;t put a timeline to (talks restarting) right now because nothing is scheduled.&rdquo;

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 199px;height: 159px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Dan Roy and Marc Maltais

	foto: France Paradis/Le-Lac-St-Jean

	With aluminium prices hovering now at very low, the Alma lockout serves as a convenient strategy to restrict supply to lift prices. It also fits Rio Tinto&rsquo;s strategy of divesting and devaluing Alcan by C$8.9 billion in view of its US$39 billion purchase of the Canadian company in 2007, although the modern and high-tech tooled Alma smelter, with its low-cost hydroelectric supply, will not likely be jettisoned.

	Perhaps this should have been a more apt business theme to the Board of Trade elite last week, and it certainly best explains the anger of metalworkers and students alike gathered on the other side of the barricades. In this vein &ndash; with Rio Tinto&rsquo;s share price dropping &ndash; it is worth mentioning that C&ocirc;t&eacute; herself exhibited a timely corporate mentality last week by shedding 3,671 shares of Rio Tinto to pocket US$213,500, money not likely to find its way to Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean.

	USW District Five Director Daniel Roy addressed the disparity between full-time, family-supporting jobs in the region to the sub-contract and lower-wage jobs that Rio Tinto is trying create with the. &ldquo;Accepting this would cause a dramatic downward spiral not only for the workers but for members of the community, which would see income, local business sales and tax revenues drop precipitously.&rdquo;

	USW Local 9490 President Marc Maltais added, &ldquo;By using subcontractors to do the work of union members, we are asked to concede on behalf of future generations. This is an attack on our children and grandchildren.&rdquo;

	The buses departed Montr&eacute;al late on Friday afternoon for the return trip to Alma, but first stopped at a plant-gate demonstration in Sorel, Qu&eacute;bec, where workers and members of ICEM-affiliated FIM-CSN (Conf&eacute;d&eacute;ration des Syndicats Nationaux) at a Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium metal powders plant lent their support. This stop again depicts the long-erected barriers between Canadian trade unions that Local 9490 is erasing inside this lockout.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 114px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Rio Tinto Alcan CEO, Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute;

	With Canada currently undergoing an unprecedented rash of corporate hostility, it is notable to witness trade unions and other groups galvanising behind victimised union workers.

	Last week, members of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 2301 at a Rio Tinto Alcan aluminium smelter in Kitimat, British Colombia, voted to take C$1-an-hour of their pay and donate it to &nbsp;Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos&nbsp; d&rsquo;Alma Local 9490. That represents C$60,000 per month.

	On 8 February, the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada contributed C$25,000 to the Alma metalworkers, and a day later the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) contributed C$10,000. USW Local 9700, one of the first unions to respond at the time of the 30 December lockout and representing Alcoa ABI workers at B&eacute;cancour, Qu&eacute;bec, voted unanimously to draw C$25-per-week from their paychecks, donating C$25,000 weekly to Local 9490.

	Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos&nbsp; d&rsquo;Alma&rsquo;s&nbsp; journey to Montr&eacute;al to confront Rio Tinto Alcan CEO Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute; is just the first sally outward. This week Local 9490 leaders will visit Rio Tinto&rsquo;s borax miners in California, where members of ICEM affiliate International Longshore &amp; Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 defended themselves courageously in a Rio Tinto-imposed lockout. And they&rsquo;ll follow that solidarity visit with to Australia to meet with unions represented Rio Tinto there.

	On March 31, a day after the ICEM North American region meets in Alma, a manifestation will occur there with scores of global trade union leaders attending. And on 1 April, a workshop will occur in Alma to verse an exact fightback strategy against Rio Tinto on the global level.&nbsp;

Locked-out Alcan Workers Take Dispute to Canadian Business Doorstep

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	&nbsp;

	Job security and job creation was the foundation behind a new two-year national labour agreement between social partners in Denmark. That came together in marathon bargaining over the weekend, 11-12 February, in framework talks for 240,000 Danish manufacturing workers and 6,000 enterprises, the latter represented by Dansk Industri.

	The trade unions, led by the eight making up Co-Industri, including 3F, Dansk Metal and HK/Pivat, in concert with the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), set an agenda of wage moderation, instead focusing on winning excellent and precedent-setting job preservation protections such as training, seniority, and reduced work hours at full pay for both old and young workers.

	This industrial social accord now establishes the parameters for other work sectors. The agreement will run from 1 March 2012 to 1 March 2014. The national industrial agreement did establish minimum wage guideposts, but exact wage increases will now be negotiated at local levels and inside company agreements.

	The framework agreement grants training at full pay with business downturns and when reductions in work time occur, and it also allows older workers to reduce their working time within five years of retirement by continuing their income levels through salaries and partial pension benefits. Workers will also have the option to tap into current pension plans as a supplement to salaries.

	A key element in the new agreement is an additional &euro;.05-per-hour worked will be added to the national Industrial Training fund.

	Employee discretion in taking training options increases from two weeks to six weeks, in some cases, and full seniority is granted to workers when they are called back from lay-offs within nine months. Previously, it was six months. As well, paid sick leave occurs after six months on a job rather than the previous nine months.

	The new pact is also kinder to lower-income earners and gives better pay-outs when such workers are laid off. Parental leave was made more flexible and added pension accrual was put in place for weekend, holiday or extra work performed.

	The recommended minimum wage increase is &euro;.18-per-hour effective 1 March, and the same amount again on 1 March 2013. A pay supplement of 1.4% each year is available for performing difficult work, and apprentices, trainees and interns will get a 2.25% pay hike in each year.

	The bargaining, which began in early January, nearly reached dispute when HK/Privat , the Commercial and Clerical Workers&rsquo; Union, sought to drop the 50% benchmark regarding number of staff needed before a collective agreement takes effect. A compromise was struck that gives employers the opportunity to sign labour agreements without the 50% threshold and HK/Privat coverage also was expanded to include administrative staff working as trainees and college students.

	The agreement was widely praised in Denmark as the necessary building block to restore some 80,000 industrial and manufacturing jobs that have been lost in the country since the onset of the financial crisis.

Enlightened Industrial Labour Pact Set in Place in Denmark for 240,000 Workers

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	&nbsp;

	The ICEM &ndash; along with the European Mine, Chemical, Energy, Federation (EMCEF) &ndash; will march in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, tomorrow, 16 November, in support of 5,200 British workers who are seriously threatened by Unilever with closure of a final salary pension scheme. The ICEM and EMCEF will join European workers of the world&rsquo;s third largest consumer goods company in protest at the company&rsquo;s Rotterdam headquarters.

	The message &ndash; Unilever, Don&rsquo;t Make Workers Pay for Your Profits &ndash; will specifically target Unilever CEO Paul Polman for his 2010-11 salary and bonus pay-out of &euro;8 million. Unilever is out to slash between 20-40% of pension earnings to UK workers represented by trade unions Unite the Union, GMB and the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers&rsquo; (USDAW).

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 141px;height: 159px" width="390" />

	Jennie Formby

	&ldquo;Executive greed and compensation must be challenged,&rdquo; stated United National Officer Jennie Formby. Polman saw a 50% increase in his total earnings from 2010 to 2011, some 285 times that of the average Unilever worker.

	The Rotterdam manifestation comes just days two weeks after Unilever posted a strong set of financial numbers in its latest results and three weeks after UK workers from several Unilever sites descended on Davos, Switzerland, where Polman served as one of the co-chairs at the World Economic Forum.

	The three British unions have engaged in two rounds of industrial actions against Unilever at 11 plants, the latest coming with 11 days of rolling strike actions that ended on 28 January. Unilever UK management did finally agree to meet with the unions on 9 February with the assistance of UK&rsquo;s Advisory, Conciliation and Mediation Services (ACAS), but the company is still adamant on closing the final salary pension scheme effective 1 July 2012.

	Unilever instead intends to implement a pension scheme based on career average earnings. Formby said Polman&rsquo;s vision of doubling Unilever&rsquo;s revenue stream over the next ten years and creating &ldquo;sustainable living&rdquo; is disingenuous in view of cutting workers&rsquo; pensions.

	Tomorrow&rsquo;s manifestation will begin at 12h00 at Unilever&rsquo;s offices at Weena 455, Rotterdam. The ICEM also will raise concerns over the 5 February closure due to a labour dispute at Unilever&rsquo;s Basamadi, Nepal, factory. The dispute at that facility, which produces Lux and Lifebuoy soaps and Pepsodent and Close-Up toothpastes, is close to a resolve this week after intervention from the Nepalese government.

Unilever Rotterdam Protest Pits Corporate Compensation vs. Workers’ Pension Cuts

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 77, February 2012

<img alt="" height="59" src="" width="120" />

	Warning strikes across Austria&rsquo;s electric energy sector slated for tomorrow, 15 February, brought a national labour agreement to 21,000 workers over the weekend. ICEM affiliate PRO-GE and GPA-djp, the Salaried Employees, Print, Journalism, Paper Union reached accord on 12 February after the third round of bargaining last week failed.

	In keeping with a decision made in worksite meetings after the second round of talks failed, late in January, the two unions got strike endorsement from the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions (&Ouml;GB) and were to start manifestations today, with warning strikes commencing tomorrow.

	Instead, the employers&rsquo; association moved a previous 3.6% wage offer to over 4%, with the minimum level of wages in the utility sector lifted to 4.2%. Higher-level wages will be increased by 3.8%, while those of apprentices will be hiked by 4.2%.

	The two unions took the stalemate in 2012 wage negotiations to union memberships at the shop-floor level because employers were refusing to come close to wage level increases reached in Austria&rsquo;s metal sector last October, or to account for a 2011 inflation rate of 3.2% that continues to rise. The unions also cited rising company earnings as reason why electric generating and distribution companies could pay what was achieved in the nation&rsquo;s metal sector.

	In a statement issued yesterday, PRO-GE&rsquo;s Manfred Anderle and GPA-djp&rsquo;s Karl Proyer jointly said: &ldquo;Our great thanks go to all employees and to the shop stewards, who made this possible through their solidarity and readiness for action.&rdquo;

Threat of Strikes in Austria’s Electric Sector Brings National Accord

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 59px" width="390" />

	Union members, affiliated to Unite the Union in the UK, rejected 5 March a redundancy proposal from Austrian packaging company Mayr-Melnhof that would have ended a 19-day lockout at a plant in Merseyside, near Liverpool. Workers rejected it 138-1 largely because management still insists on its own discretionary powers in disbursing redundancy packages to 49 workers.

	Unite has escalated a campaign against the Vienna-based paper carton and packaging company primarily because Mayr-Melnhof has retracted and reduced buy-out terms in this set of talks, and has substantially broken from redundancy pay-outs and terms commonly established in past consultations.

	In talks on 29 February and again on 3 March, the company proposed a social fund to bridge the difference paid in its 2008 and 2010 layoffs, with lesser packages offered now. But the social fund would be discretionary, based on subjective criteria unilaterally set by the company, which underscores Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s bargaining posture throughout this set of 2012 talks.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 160px;height: 97px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Workers at the Bootle, Merseyside, plant began lawful industrial actions on 10 February over Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s intransigence with six-hour &ldquo;switch strikes.&rdquo; &nbsp;Walkouts rotated from 06h to noon, and from noon to 18h. On 18 February, managers locked workers out and began manoeuvring to move equipment and product out of the factory.

	Workers then entered the factory and staged a shop-floor sit-in to prevent removal. Despite several sets of talks since, Mayr-Melnhof has steadfastly resisted any workable compromise proposed by Unite, and the lockout has continued.

	The union has brought the dispute to Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s Packaging Division workers in Germany, and the ICEM has issued a call for <a href="/en/19-Pulp-Paper/4918-Packaging-Workers-Need-Support-">Solidarity Action</a>, which can be viewed and acted upon here. Trade unionists inside the company&rsquo;s Karton Division, led by Austrian affiliate PRO-GE, have brought attention to the company&rsquo;s hostile UK labour relations inside Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s eight European paper mills, and PRO-GE has also protested loudly to CEO Wilhelm Hoermansedar.

	Unite, meanwhile, is preparing an industrial ballot at Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s other UK packaging plant, in Deeside, North Wales, on grounds that the company is worsening redundancy terms and conditions from previously agreed. The Bootle plant produces food packaging from tea bags to breakfast cereal to pet food packaging, with Kellogg&rsquo;s the plant&rsquo;s biggest customer.

Mayr-Melnhof Lockout Continues at UK Packaging Plant

&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 140px;height: 68px" width="390" />

	The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) is demanding that labour and regulatory law in the province of Ontario be toughened in the wake of the social calamity perpetrated by Caterpillar Inc. in the recent lockout/closure of a rail electric diesel factory in the south-western provincial city of London.

	With that nearly all labour law in Canada is governed by the provinces, CAW demanded in a 29 February letter to Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey that Ontario toughen its labour statutes as remedy to lax investment regulations. Specifically, the CAW demands that more powers be granted the Ontario Labour Relations Board to stamp out bad-faith bargaining strategies.

	The CAW is campaigning for a stronger and more modernized labour code in Ontario because of Caterpillar&rsquo;s subsidiary, Electro-Motive Diesel, blackmailing workers and a community in choosing between non-liveable wages and a major plant closure. (See prior <a href="-Caterpillar-to-Close-Canadian-Train-Locomotive-Plant">ICEM report</a> here.)

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 145px" width="390">&nbsp;

	Ken Lewenza

	In the letter, CAW President Ken Lewenza said, &ldquo;The company&rsquo;s unjustifiable behaviour &ndash; and the resulting devastation now being brought to bear on workers and the community &ndash; has touched a nerve with Canadians and triggered broad public support.&rdquo;

	The CAW is proposing powers of expedited interest arbitration in pitched labour disputes, as well as new provisions to prevent employers from evading collective agreements by using a lockout.

	Also put forward is a ban on scab replacement workers during a dispute, and restoring workers&rsquo; plant closing rights to negotiate adjustment plans. The CAW also says fairness demands the lengthening of time for giving plant closing notice, and a minimum two weeks&rsquo; pay for each year of service, with elimination of the five-year service tie-in.

	The CAW letter also calls for an Industrial Inquiry Commission, as stipulated in Section 37, Ontario Labour Relations Act, in order to investigate Caterpillar carnage on workers in the province and the city of London.

	&ldquo;The Caterpillar debacle demonstrates all too well the ease with which an employer can stall out the negotiation process, bargain in bad faith with impunity and manufacture a dispute in an attempt to evade contractual obligations,&rdquo; Lewenza stated.

	&ldquo;Caterpillar did not misjudge or misinterpret Ontario&rsquo;s labour laws; rather, they understood them all too well, and exploited the laws&rsquo; weaknesses as a key part of their overall strategy.&rdquo;

Update Labour Laws, CAW Tells Ontario in Caterpillar Aftermath

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 140px;height: 68px" width="390" />

	If anyone needs further proof to Vale&rsquo;s global social neglect, it comes in a pair of dirty deeds committed by the Brazilian mining company in and after the bitter 2009-10 strike at a major nickel and copper operation in Sudbury, Ontario.

	One involves circumstances surrounding two deaths inside Vale&rsquo;s Frood-Stobie Mine on 8 June 2011 and the other is added legal proof that Vale&rsquo;s strong-arm tactics in firing union activists during the United Steelworkers (USW) strike was meant to hinder legal collective bargaining.

	An extensive report issued 29 February by the USW over the June 2011 deaths of Jordan Fram, 26, an equipment operator, and Jason Chenier, 35, a supervisor, was done because Vale refused the offer of the USW to investigate the accident jointly. USW blames negligent water drainage maintenance directly tied to lax and &ldquo;little experience or training&rdquo; of front-line supervisors.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 347px;height: 138px" width="390">&nbsp;

	USW Local 6500 Union Meeting

	Fram and Chenier were buried 900 metres underground by an overflow of muck, a term for an avalanche of wet rock, gravel, sand, water washing down a mine shaft. Even though USW Local 6500 is the legitimate bargaining representative, the report notes, &ldquo;Vale officials refused to be interviewed by members of the USW team&rdquo; even though union members &ldquo;cooperated fully in management&rsquo;s investigation.&rdquo;

	The <a href="http://www.uswlocal6500.ca/reports/exectsum.pdf">Executive Summary</a> and the full 207-page <a href="http://www.uswlocal6500.ca/reports/dfinvest.doc">USW Report</a> are here.

	The week before USW issued the report, the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) ruled that Vale violated provincial labour law by maintaining a &ldquo;patently unreasonable&rdquo; stance over nine workers Vale fired for strike activity. The OLRB agreed with the USW that the nine trade unionists were denied rights to third-party arbitration by the company, and further cited Vale for &ldquo;troubling&rdquo; labour relations conduct across several areas.

	In January, the OLRB <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4838-Ontario-Labour-Board-Rules-Discharged-USW-Sudbury-Leader-has-Worksite-Access">cited Vale with union interference</a> for denying entry onto company property for one of the nine discharged workers is the elected head of Local 6500&rsquo;s Grievance Committee. The USW is now confident that arbitrated decisions will prevail and the nine workers will return to their rightful jobs.

	The USW District Director for Ontario and the Atlantic Region, Wayne Fraser, said the OLRB&rsquo;s 24 February ruling &ldquo;should give Vale pause to consider the hardship inflicted on families,&rdquo; adding that the unlawful conduct &ldquo;prolonged the suffering and uncertainty for families in our community.&rdquo;

	Vale&rsquo;s safety record in Canada was tarnished again on 29 January 2012 when 47-year-old Stephen Perry, an explosives worker, was crushed to death when a rock face collapsed on him while he was working in a lift basket. This death occurred 1,300 metres inside Vale&rsquo;s Coleman nickel mine near Sudbury.

	A fourth Canadian Vale death in 2011 occurred on 19 October when 51-year-old scooptram operator Greg Leason was killed when his machine fell 40 metres into a cavern inside the T-3 Mine in Thompson, Manitoba.

	Historically, the four 2011 deaths at Vale in Canada are atypical because the USW is a vigilant proponent of joint labour-management process safety procedures that prevent workplace accidents. But with Vale&rsquo;s hostile labour relations still simmering some 20 months after the strike, no cooperation with the union over health and safety issues is proving detrimental to workplace safety.

Safety, Union Busting Haunts Vale inside Sudbury, Canada, Mines

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