Workers unite against global exploiter

Inside the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Dec. 3, a Goldman Sachs investors’ conference was presenting Roger Agnelli, CEO of the giant mining transnational Vale SA, with a “Dwight D. Eisenhower Global Citizenship” award. Outside, miners from several countries were holding a noisy and militant demonstration protesting Vale’s brutal anti-labor practices.

UNITE HERE sign reads ‘union’ in 100 languages. WW photo: John Catalinotto

Canadian and U.S. miners in the United Steel Workers union were joined by more than 200 other unionists from UNITE HERE Local 6, which bused in 100 fired Hyatt housekeepers from Boston.

Mineworker Fabio Bosco, who flew all the way from Brazil to support his striking Canadian sisters and brothers, attacked Wall Street and the banks as the main instigators behind Vale’s attempt to crush the union and lower the living standards of Canadian mine workers to the level of Brazilian miners. USW is conducting an international counteroffensive against Vale.

Miners from Sudbury and Voisey Bay, Ontario, Canada, work in vast mine networks 8,000 feet underground. They have invested their very lives in producing nickel. Vale took the Ontario mines over in 2006 and has tried to impose draconian cuts on the workers. A conglomerate with global operations, Vale SA raked in profits of $13 billion in 2008.

The five-month Canadian strike is blocking production of 10 percent of the world’s nickel. Some 3,300 workers and their families, with growing support from the world labor movement, are engaged in a heroic struggle to save their livelihoods and their communities. [See WW articles on Oct. 30 and Nov. 25 for detailed information on the history of this strike and its importance to labor here and worldwide.]

Eilenfeldt is a delegate to the NYC Central Labor Council and member of the Bail Out the People Movement.