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Rolling work stoppages began at a Peabody Energy coal mine in central Queensland on 7 November. The legal industrial actions, brought on by the American company’s proposed rollbacks in an enterprise labour agreement at its North Goonyella mine, could intensify in coming weeks, as members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) balloted this weekend on whether or not to take further industrial actions. 
 
A prior enterprise agreement expired early in 2008. But that was extended one year, until 31 March 2009. The dispute now centers on work rosters, rates of pay, and conditions of living in a mining camp. 
 
The CFMEU members took four three-hour work stoppages over a 24-hour period in the middle of last week. Further three-hour industrial actions could occur this week, and if this weekend’s ballot passes, legalized work stoppages could extend to 24- or 48-hour periods. Unrelated to the dispute, Peabody announced on 11 November that 34 miners would be made redundant by year’s end at North Goonyella.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Australia.png" width="200" height="102" alt=""/>
Peabody owns other coal-mining operations in Queensland and New South Wales, and is the major stakeholder of other collieries that operate with sub-contractors. All miners at these enterprises are represented by the CFMEU. Peabody bought the North Goonyella colliery from RAG AG as part of a three-mine purchase in 2003. 
 
The US multinational began mining coal in Australia through predecessor companies in the 1950s. Over the years, the CFMEU has developed close ties with the US mining union, ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers’ of America (UMWA), over Peabody’s collective agreements and organizing efforts.

CFMEU Begins Job Actions at Peabody Coal in Australia

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ICEM’s last newsletter, 14 days ago, reported on the end of a strike and the pending payment of a long-awaited pay increase for Peruvian mineworkers at the Marcona mine of Shougang Hierro Perú. That salary increase had been agreed to in July 2009, through mediation by Peru’s Labour Ministry, but never paid, so miners again went on strike for 15 days in October. 
 
However, on 4 November, after resuming work and again being promised July’s salary increase, Shougang miners again went on indefinite strike action following the company, yet again, failing to make payments. 
 
This time, the company transported non-striking workers around the mine in illegal and unsafe vehicles, as transport drivers joined miners on strike. Such practices are against both national and regional law in the Ica District of southern Peru, and coupled with failure to pay the negotiated and agreed-to salaries, depicts a multinational metals company, albeit state-owned, exhibiting contempt for Peruvian law and its workers.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/PeruFlag.gif" width="120" height="83" alt=""/>
The ICEM affiliate in Peru, the National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (FNTMMSP), last week called upon Labour Minister Manuela García Cochagne to act and deal harshly with the latest illegalities of Shougang Hierro. The Chinese company has been mining iron ore near the town of San Juan de Marcona since its 1993 purchase from the state. Since then, the union says that Shougang has only poverty levels in the area, and has blocked local residents from owning land. 
 
Elsewhere in Peru’s mining industry, the Ministry of Labour is attempting to avoid a strike at the Los Quenuales zinc mine, owned by the Swiss transnational Glencore. The dispute there runs consistent with many stories from around the world; Glencore is using the current global economic crisis to renege on a prior salary agreement for some 1,800 workers. The weekly raise that the Swiss holding company refuses to pay is 2 Peruvian Soles per week, the equivalent to US$0.68.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910PeruFNTMMSPLuis Castillo.jpg" width="160" height="120" alt=""/>
FNTMMSP Gen. Sec. Luis Castillo Carlos 
The branch union at Los Quenales represents workers also from contract companies operating at Los Quenuales. The union has been attempting to negotiate with management since 15 October, with no positive results. FNTMMSP General Secretary Luis Castillo Carlos has been negotiating on behalf of the workers. 
 
A collective of multinationals face another Peruvian dispute at the Antamina copper and zinc mine. Antamina is controlled by BHP Billiton and Xstrata (33.75% each), with Teck Cominco of Canada and Mitsubishi of Japan holding smaller stakes. Management of one of South America’s largest copper/zinc mines is offering no pay increase, while FNTMMSP is seeking a raise of living wage each day. Negotiations will continue on 17 November, and if they fail, a strike mandate could be in order.

Chinese Mine Firm Shougang Hierro Perú Again Reneges on Salary Hike

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ICEM affiliate Sintraelecol reported last week that the union has signed a collective agreement with ISA Transelca for a period from 2009 to 2012. 
 
The triumph for the union brings significant pay rises to the 110 workers, with more than 80% of those workers receiving increases amounting to 10% above inflation. 
 
And perhaps even more significantly, the new agreement brings Contract and Agency Labour staff used by the company into full, direct employment, complete with all the legal protection that full-time employees receive.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMelectricity5.JPG.JPG" width="140" height="138" alt=""/>
The ICEM commends this achievement by Sintraelecol, which is significant not only because of the improved work conditions achieved for workers in Colombia in the electric sector, but also because Grupo ISA Transelca operates in many neighbouring countries, such as Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, and Ecuador. The hope is that this agreement will serve as an example and precedent for management and unions in those countries to reach similar agreements, and bring contract and agency staff onto the company’s books. 
 
The rate of collective bargaining in Colombia is the lowest in the entire Andean region. Trade unionists face anti-union repression from the national government, as well as fear of killed or assaulted while deploying legitimate trade union activity. These facts make the agreement with ISA Transelca all the more commendable. 
 
Also in Colombia, ICEM affiliate Sintravidricol last week reported a victory in forcing Havells Sylvania, a maker of lighting fixtures, to reinstate workers who had been illegally dismissed. Reintegration into the workforce will take place on 17 November. 
 
Sintravidricol issued a statement praising all union members, as well as ICEM Colombia Project Coordinator Carlos Bustos, for their help and solidarity. However, focus and work remains on the company in Bogota, as not all workers who lost their jobs have been reinstated. The ICEM is demanding that those workers are back on their jobs immediately. Send messages of solidarity and support for these employees to the Havells Sylvania management at <a href="mailto:info.co@havells-sylvania.com">info.co@havells-sylvania.com</a>.

Rights Achieved for Contract Workers by Sintraelecol in Colombia

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World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) actions by the ICEM kicked off last week with two days of activities in Turkey, focusing on the dangers to civil society when full-time employment is eroded and use of contract and agency labour increases. 
 
The ICEM is highlighting actions on curbing the anti-social nemesis of temporary and agency work in Turkey and Thailand as its part in WDDW for 2009, the second year that global labour has marked an October date to herald decent work and decent living standards. 7 October has become fixed as WDDW, and trade unions worldwide are encouraged to use the weeks of early October to publicly rally for sustainable jobs. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0704CALThailand2.jpg" width="240" height="180"/>
In Thailand, ICEM-affiliated trade unions, together with the Confederation of State Enterprise Unions, will gather at 10h00 on 7 October in front of the UN Building on Rachadamnoen Road. From there, a march will proceed to the Government House, where a petition will be submitted to the Prime Minister’s office calling on Thailand to ratify ILO Conventions 87 and 98, the Freedom of Association and Right to Organise and Right to Collective Bargaining Conventions. 
 
The assembly is being buoyed by the Thai Solidarity Committee, and federated trade unions representing workers chemicals and petroleum, pulp and paper, automotive, electronics, textile and garments, and food workers. Thousands are expected to march. 
 
In Istanbul, Turkey, on 1 October, a delegation of leading global union leaders first met with Turkish trade union officers to let them know that global labour stands with them in preventing re-submission of “Private Labour Offices” legislation in Turkey. In late June, the country’s Parliament moved such a bill to President Abdullah Gül without hearings or input from civil society. 
 
On 9 July, President Gül vetoed the measure. The bill would have allotted fees to labour brokers in their jobs’ dispatch of temporary, and allowed any individual or business to certify as a private-hire labour agency with a minimal investment of TL 20,000 (€9,250). 
Last Thursday, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWU) General Secretary Neil Kearney, International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) General Secretary Jyrki Raina, and ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal Özkan met with Turkish trade unions, as well as with Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türk-İş) General Secretary Mustafa Kumlu to pledge continued resistance to the bill. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.turkey.wddw.JPG" width="315" height="175"/>
Trade Union Leaders with Turkish Minister of Labour and Social Security Ömer Dinçer
Later in the day, Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member, joined global union leaders in a meeting with Turkish Minister of Labour and Social Security Ömer Dinçer. The minister confirmed that the draft bill, at present, is not on the agenda of the Parliament. 
 
Discussion also ensued on trade union rights and freedoms inside Turkey. Dinçer said his ministry is ready to cooperate with the global trade union movement to modify Turkey’s draconian labour code to become more in line with ILO Conventions and European Union norms. The union leaders also met separately on 1 October with Salim Uslu, president of Hak-İş, the Real Trade Unions Confederation of Turkey, and with Süleyman Çelebi, President of DİSK, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.turkey.pressconference.JPG" width="352" height="146"/>
2 October Press Conference in Istanbul
On 2 October, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary Guy Ryder joined Warda, Kearney, Raina, and the four presidents of Turkish national labour centers at an 11h00 press conference. The conference was attended by 60 trade union leaders from inside Turkey, and press representing 18 Turkish media outlets. 
 
Again, the message zeroed in on the growing threat to the living standards of workers under the present trend of discarding regular and full-time employees in favour of temporary and agency work. In two days, on 7 October, DİSK will distribute, in all workplaces in which it has membership, an ITUC manifesto on WDDW. 
 
Meanwhile, the Türk-İş Confederation will sponsor an international symposium on decent work on that day at Gazi University in Ankara. The Global Union Council will be present for that symposium. 
 
Also in Thailand this week, trade unions are doing vast media outreach around WDDW and are disseminating the IMF’s precarious work brochure and poster.

ICEM’s WDDW Activities Start in Istanbul; March Set in Bangkok on 7 October

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ICEM Italian affiliate FEMCA-CISL has drawn a line in the stand against any break-up of Eni, the oil and gas major that is 30% owned by the Italian government. As investors study a restructuring of the energy company, the union sounded a warning last week that splitting Eni into separate companies would bring more harm than good. 
 
FEMCA-CISL General Secretary Sergio Gigli said both workers and consumers would be negatively affected, and that skills, knowledge, and strategic synergies – long vital in the running of the company – would be destroyed. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Sergio%20gigli.jpg" width="130" height="173"/>
Sergio Gigli
The union’s comments came at the same time that a financial conference was being held in Milan to address restructuring the company. At that conference, American asset management company and minority shareholder, Knight Vinke, known for provoking shareholder activism to break apart enterprises, recommended that Eni’s oil and gas units be split apart in separate upstream and downstream businesses. 
 
FEMCA-CISL called such a possible separation a loss of integration that would jeopardize the company as a national model, and as an entity that plays a valuable social role inside Italy. The union also said that any weakening of Eni would erode the company’s ability to provide guaranteed strategic energy source supplies to Italy. 
 
Meanwhile, three Italian unions – FILCEM-CGIL, UILCEM-UIL, and FEMCA-CISL – welcomed the news last week that talks have fallen through between Eni and a UK private equity group, the Klesch Group, over sale of a refinery in Livorno, Tuscany. The discussions caused a nine-day strike by unions at the 1,000-worker refinery in early September. Eni had insisted in preliminary talks with Klesch that job guarantees be given to all workers.

Italian Union, FEMCA-CISL, Opposes Splitting of Energy Company Eni

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The International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers' Association (IUF) scored a victory in its ongoing struggle for the rights of workers at Unilever in June, by reaching a settlement with the multinational to permanently employ members of a union Action Committee at the Rahim Yar Khan plant in Pakistan. 
 
Permanent positions were created for workers, who had previously been employed precariously. Unilever dismissed those workers after they protested against status as fixed-term contract workers. 
 
In October 2007, the IUF began a concerted campaign against the mass dismissals, supported by the National Federation of Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Workers of Pakistan, which was conducted in the country’s courtrooms, as well as on streets. The Action Committee was then formed to fight for rights for permanent jobs. 
 
Last month’s negotiated settlement was agreed to through mechanisms of the OECD, including applying standards of its Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which require companies to ensure that all its subsidiaries conform to global labour standards, including ILO Conventions 87 and 98. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0901.unilever.pakistan.jpg" width="300" height="158"/>
The 120 new positions were created at the Rahim Yar Khan plant as of 24 June 2009. All Action Committee members were appointed to these posts. Under the terms of the agreement, these workers are to suffer no discrimination or victimization, and will be free to organize and bargain collectively. 
 
Implementation of the agreement will be continuously monitored by the IUF and Unilever. 
 
Despite this positive settlement, Unilever continues its policy to employ large numbers of CAL workers. There has been no improvement to the rights of workers at the Lipton tea factory in Khanewal, Pakistan, which was reported <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/3015-Support-Needed-for-Contract-Agency-Workers-Forming-Union-at-Unilever-Tea-Factory-in-Pakistan" type="internal">here</a> by the ICEM in January 2009.  
 
“I am encouraged by the news of a just settlement at the Rahim Yar Khan plant,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “This is a step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go before we succeed in ending the anti-union employment strategies of Unilever.” 
 
The Khanewal factory employs just 22 permanent workers, with another 723 hired through six labour agency companies.

Victory Noted for IUF in Unilever Contract Labour Struggle in Pakistan

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Svenska Pappers, the Swedish Paperworkers Union, and the Forest Industry Employers’ Association (SFIF) reached agreement for 18,000 workers on 26 April, just minutes before a second set of industrial actions were to begin. Those strikes, if they had happened, would have shut a total of 12 pulp and paper mills in Sweden. 
 
Strike action at six mills did occur on 16 April, taking 3,000 paperworkers out in protest against an industry attempting to make workers the scapegoats for the financial crisis. It was those strikes, the unified front of all Pappers members at 61 mills, and the threatened further strikes that gave better-than-average wage gains and contract terms to Pappers and its members. 
 
The SFIF was the driving wedge in a multi-industry employers’ front that was aimed at Sweden’s paperworkers in an effort to shift the burden of the economic crisis onto workers. Pulp, paper, and packaging trade unions across the world recognised this and posted hundreds of solidarity messages to Pappers, all of which made their way to branch unions. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SWEDEN.JanHenrikSandberg.jpg" width="200" height="267" alt=""/>
Svenska Pappers President Jan-Henrik Sandberg
The 26-day stand-off only ended when industry chieftains realised they were at the brink of another major set-back to Swedish pulp and paper exports. The union and SFIF agreed on a 22-month contract, totaling 3.4%, with the first increase taking effect 1 May and the second increase due on 1 April 2011. As part of that total pay package, an extra 0.4% additional increase was won for the lowest paid workers in the sector. That was one goal met by Pappers in its bargaining aims. 
 
The other goals that were accomplished included continued company payments to a pension scheme for a period, an issue related to Swedish law, and tougher sanctions on employers who use and abuse workers hired through agency labour companies. In addition, the union’s grittiness both at the bargaining table and on the shop floor won supplementary insurance benefits for workers injured at work and an added month – from four to five – of paid parental leave. 
 
“We were overwhelmed by the support and solidarity given us from around the world by so many different trade unions," said Svenska Pappers President Jan-Henrik Sandberg. “We passed these messages on to our branches and this support strengthened our resolve. We express our sincere gratitude for this outpouring of solidarity."

Swedish Paperworkers Carve Solid Gains After 11-day Strike

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The European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF) and the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) joined together on 22 April in a Brussels manifestation, demanding a secure future for industrial sites across the 27 Member States of the European Union. 
 
Marching under the banner “Power to Jobs in Europe! Time to Act!” 1,200 people marched and then leading figures of EMCEF, EMF, and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) met with EU Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner László Andor and Industry and Entrepreneurship Commission Antonio Tajani to stress the impact that climate change, energy prices, and high raw material costs have on jobs. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.emcef.reibsch.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt=""/>
EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch 
 
Photo: Andy Michaelis
Demonstrators in Europe’s capital city also called for stricter regulation of financial markets and the necessity to add needed social dimensions to EU emission-trading schemes. 
 
A simultaneous EMCEF/EMF manifestation occurred in the German city of Duisburg, home to the large German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp. 
 
Buses and trains replete with industrial workers waving the colours of their unions descended into Brussels. One busload of workers came from Scunthorpe in the Yorkshire region of the UK, where the steel-maker Tata Corus has shed jobs. 
 
“We are uniting in Brussels to ensure workers come before profits,” said Unite the Union National Steel Officer Terry Pye. “Rising electricity prices are damaging our already weakened industries, making windfall profits for electricity companies. Pressure on raw material prices is also heightened by financial market speculators trying to make a quick buck on the back of our industries.” 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.igmetall.jpg" width="200" height="150" alt=""/>
Photo: Andy Michaelis
Belgian ACV-CSC Metea President Marc De Wilde said industrial production in the Benelux country dropped by 30% in 2009, with a 10% reduction in the number of workers as a consequence. He said previously, suppliers and others provided long-term contracts that assured steady pricing and workplace stability. “Now, only short-term contracts” are given and that means instability for both workers and enterprises. 
 
EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch spoke at the manifestation. He said, “We need a clear policy of the European Union that is in the interest of our jobs and the economic future of Europe.” Reibsch added that the economic success of Europe has historically been the industrial model, and that industrial production must remain the basis for creating a just and equitable society. 
 
Reibsch, EMF General Secretary Peter Scherrer, and ETUC Secretary Jozef Niemiec then met with EU officials. An open letter from the European labour federations to Commission President José Manuel Barroso, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, and the heads of government of all 27 Member States stated that the time to act for preservation of industrial enterprises is now.

EMCEF, EMF Join to Demand European Preservation of Industrial Sectors

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A relentless, two-year campaign by ICEM US affiliate, the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), against Covanta gave 140 workers in the state of Massachusetts their first labour agreement effective 15 April. The collective agreement, actually two contracts with one giving workers huge retroactive backpay and bonus awards, punctuates a capitulation by the American waste-to-energy company in resisting full workers’ rights following a successful organizing drive. 
 
That recruitment drive by UWUA Local 369 at an incinerator in Rochester, Massachusetts, that burns solid waste for conversion to electricity occurred in May 2008. Following the union vote, conducted by the US labour board, Covanta did what so many American companies do following union certification: they engage in “surface bargaining,” never intending to reach a first labour agreement, and they punish workers for voting union by withholding scheduled pay gains. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/covanta-smoke-4-copy.jpg" width="216" height="160"/>
Under US labour statute, after a one-year period has elapsed from the certification vote, workers have an option to de-authorise the union as bargaining representative. 
 
But at Covanta in Massachusetts, the UWUA would have none of it. The Washington, DC-based union began an unyielding campaign that blocked the publicly-traded Covanta from expanding its waste-to-energy business into Canada, Ireland, the UK, and the Netherlands. That meant engaging trade unions, civic organizations, and environmental groups as Covanta sought to gain municipal contracts to collect trash and the necessary permits to built incinerations in those countries in order to sell power to electric grids. 
 
UWUA impeded Covanta both at home and abroad by highlighting the company’s negligent health and safety ledger, its environmental record, and its appalling labour relations conduct, which included serious and malicious breaches of US labour law (see earlier ICEM dispatches <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3694-UWUA-Wins-US$1-Million-Judgment-for-Covanta-Workers- " type="internal">here</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3532-US-Labour-Board-Issues-Stern-Injunctive-Relief-against-Covanta " type="internal">here</a>, and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3039-Covanta-Energy-Violates-US-Labour-Law " type="internal">here</a>). 
 
The end result was a three-year collective agreement, plus a separate contract granting workers sizeable backpay and bonus payments that had been withheld. Local 369 members at Covanta’s SEMASS facility voted to accept the pair of agreements by a wide margin on 22 April. The pay and other gains are exceptional, and the working agreement now in place contains the best features of US union contracts. 
 
The backdated bonus and pay accord gives the 140 workers a retroactive wage increase of 3% to early 2009; an incentive bonus of 8.1% of total wages for 2008; an annual wage increases backdated to 1 January 2010 of 2.7%; and a further missed incentive bonus of 4.85% of total wages for 2009. Added up, these retroactive gains average US$17,000 per worker. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810Mike%20LangfordPrezUWUA.jpg" width="200" height="133"/>
UWUA President D. Michael Langford
And on top of that, comes the three-year pay, bonus, and other union protection items which took effect in mid-April. That includes a 2.8% increase each year, a ratification bonus of US$1,250 per worker, additional incentive bonuses of up to 7% in each year of the contract, as well as new safety and health protections, including a medical surveillance programme to monitor workers’ blood levels from the handling of hazardous materials, and limits on sub-contracting. 
 
The ICEM considers UWUA’s campaign and the end result of the Local 369-Covanta contract exemplary and an inspiring example inside America on how best to fight a recalcitrant employer attempting to deny its employees their lawful rights. In congratulating UWUA President D. Michael Langford, General Secretary Manfred Warda termed the initial labour agreement an excellent one that “all UWUA members – in fact, all union members in America – can be justly proud of.” (See the full letter <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/33%20Letter%20to%20UWUA%20Presiden%20-%20Michael%20Langford.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.) 
 
In a joint release issued by UWUA Local 369 and Covanta, Local 369 President Gary Sullivan stated, “Our UWUA Bargaining Committee has done an outstanding job pressing for a fair and just contract. We are hopeful this is the first step to a productive relationship with Covanta.”

Utility Workers of America Gets Excellent First Labour Pact with Covanta

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The month of May has been designated by United Steelworkers Local 6500 in Canada as “anti-scab” month, a reference to the strikebreakers that the Brazilian mining company Vale is using in efforts to break a ten-month strike in the provinces of Ontario and Labrador/Newfoundland. 
 
Some 200 steelworkers and other supporters rallied in Queen’s Park, Toronto, on 29 April to support introduction of legislation in the Ontario Parliament that would outlaw the use of striker replacements during economic strikes or lockouts. Many of the steelworkers arrived after long bus rides from Sudbury, Ontario, where they experience first-hand the family hardships and community strife brought on by the bargaining intransigence of a company content to use scabs to regain partial production. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.usw.ken.neumann.jpg" width="205" height="154" alt=""/>
ICEM Vice President, Ken Neumann
On 29 April, the Private Member’s Bill that again would prohibit companies operating in Ontario from using scabs passed a first reading in Parliament by a 32-3 vote. The bill was introduced by New Democratic Party legislators France Gelinas and Peter Kormos. 
 
Somewhat surprisingly, 21 members of the ruling Liberal Party joined with eight New Democrats and three Progressive Conservatives to pass this first reading. The bill must proceed through two more hearings before becoming law, and that could happen by year’s end. In Canada, most labour code is enacted at the provincial level. 
 
Quebec and British Colombia are currently the only two provinces that prohibit the use of replacement workers during strikes or lockouts. In Ontario, such a prohibition was on the books from 1992 to 1995, but was repealed in 1995 when Liberals took control of the Parliament. Gelinas presented proof that legislation banning companies from using replacement workers leads to shorter strikes, less volatile picket-line scenes, less family and community stress, and overall, better labour-management relations. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.usw.andrea.horvath.jpg" width="154" height="205" alt=""/>
Andrea Horvath, NDP Ontario Chair Person
The 3,100 victimised miners and nickel and copper smelter workers at Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, as well as another 250 workers that are on strike against Vale in Voiseys Bay and Goose Bay, Labrador, are current examples on why the ban is needed. Their lives have been turned upside down by a profitable employer demanding deep cuts in their collective agreements. 
 
In Sudbury on 28 April, the City Council firmly sided with the interests of the community by passing a resolution condemning Vale for using replacement workers. The resolution also calls on the provincial legislative body to enact the ban and urges Vale and the USW to return to the bargaining table. Previously, the city has charged Vale with violating zoning bylaws by housing scab workers inside an industrial complex. 
 
In Voiseys Bay last month, USW Local 9508 aligned with the Nunatsiavit First Nations People to prevent a Vale vessel from entering a port to collect copper ore concentrates. Union leaders also met with the Labrador/Newfoundland Minister of Natural Resources to express safety concerns over replacement workers utilizing mining and other equipment without the proper training.

Canadian Nickel Strikers Rally for Renew Anti-Scab Law in Ontario Province

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