Steelworkers to Vale Mining Inc: Fair Deal for Steelworkers EVERYWHERE...NOW!!!

www.fairdealnow.ca

Steelworkers centered in Brazil and Canada are reacing across national boundaries and thereby belying the common (and outdated) image of industrial workers as jealously opposed to globalization on the whole and suspicious of foreign workers who they bitterly perceive as the blameworthy parties when jobs are "stolen" as factories close down and move abroad, taking work and livelihoods with them.  In contrast to this outmoded common vision of the backwords worker confronting globalization, solidarity and transnationalism is the spirit of the era now.  Steelworkers recognize that it is not each other who are to blame for their woes, but the unscrupulous tactics of the multinationals which employ them, including the Brazilian-based mineral concern, Vale, the second-largest mining company in the world and the second largest private company of any kind in Canada.

Vale is accused of making an excuse out of the global economic difficulties - while the company's profits show no sign of disappearing, management claims they are justified in taking away traditional compensation and fair wages from Canadian workers while they simultaneously fatten their own wallets to the tune of $33million USD (between just SIX executives in 2008, an increase of 120% for top management between 2006 and 2008). 

Led by the Canadian locals of the United Steel Workers (USW) and joined by a strong Brazilian sister-movemen as well as supporters in unions across the globe, the "Fair Deal Now!" campaign seeks to hold Vale INCO accountable for its indefensible payment practices in Canadian and violations of a litany of workers rights in Brazil [see more "Facts About Vale" and its unfair treatment of workers HERE].   Steelworkers and workers' groups around the globe are united to fight back against the unfair labor practices of the Brazilian-based multinational. 

According to USW representatives, Vale's treatment of steelworkers over the last several years has gotten bad enough to constitute a serious threat to the very existence of a Canadian working middle-class.  The USW representatives cite Vale for their failure to maintain good faith bargaining practices and equitable compensation practices in their Canada operations in addition to taking away the economic security provided by bonuses which have traditionally rewarded workers for their contribution to the company's profits.  The management uses "hard times" to justify these cuts to their workers' livelihoods, but it seems that the execs aren't worried enough about the bottom line to stop paying exorbitant bonuses to themselves. 

LINK: "Kids Stonewalled at Vale INCO Gate" & other Video Footage of the Workers' Struggle

LINK: More Video Footage Re: the USW Strike Against Vale

This storyline is so familar now that it is not likely to evoke shock and horror but rather exhaustion and disgust.  However, the fact that multinational corporations pay millions of dollars to executives while cutting the pay of hard working people on the factory floors, and that such practices are further expected in today's global economic culture, does not diminish role of the workers' vocal protests. 

That such acts are common practice is no excuse for their persistence, and the steelworkers at Vale and their allies worldwide provide inspirational reminders that injustice must never be tolerated and that in the face of prevasive violations of workers' rights and dignity the resistence must be even more widespread, organized, and dedicated than ever. 

TAKE ACTION!  Support the transnational steelworkers' campaign demanding just and fair treatment from their employers, including Vale-Inco across geographical divides...

YOU CAN HELP!!  ACT NOW!!  Send a letter to Vale's CEO Roger Agnelli by clicking on the letter form link at: http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=595. 

Over 8000 individuals and groups have already pledged support in this manner, and the campaign is truly global, with supporters and information represented in nearly a dozen languages and include pledges of solidarity from worker unions and groups in Indonesia and Zambia among many others.  Here's to the realization of workers' potential through global solidarity in action!!

SPREAD THE WORD!! JOIN THE COMMUNITY!!

Join the campaign's group on UnionBook! http://www.unionbook.org/pg/groups/19803/

STAY INFORMED!! 

You can sign up to receive email updates about the strike and campaign at: Fair Deal Now! http://www.fairdealnow.ca/?page_id=27

Check out the video archives at FAIR DEAL NOW TV

   Image at Left - LINK: you can even order a window sign  from campaign website to raise awareness of the fight for steelworkers' rights worldwide and to show your support 

 GET IN TOUCH & STAY IN CONTACT!!

to reach campaign organizers and representatives:

USW District Director
name:  Wayne Fraser
address:  200 Ronson Drive, Suite 300, Etobicoke, ON  M9W 5Z9
phone: 416-243-8792
email:  wfraser@usw.ca