On the march: ILWU Secretary Treasurer Willie Adams was a part of delegation of ILWU members who joined the massive solidarity rally in Alma, Québec, Canada for 780 families were locked-out by the mining giant Rio Tinto on December 31, 2011
The United Steelworkers (USW) and its global allies are hailing the end of Rio Tinto’s six-month lockout of aluminum smelter workers in Alma, Quebec, as a great victory for the workers and their supporters around the world.
A collective agreement that will run to the end of 2015 was ratified Thursday by USW Local 9490 members by a wide margin. The ratification brings an end to the lockout of 780 Steelworkers and their famlies imposed by Rio Tinto Alcan in late December.
The Alma Steelworkers are expected to return to work on an incremental basis over the next several weeks.
“We were forced to take on the third-largest mining company in the world and we won,” said USW President Leo Gerard. “Many thought this was impossible, given the power imbalance, but we sent a message to the resource industry throughout the world that workers and their unions can take on huge multinational corporations to stop unjust demands.”
“The key to victory was the enormous solidarity shown by our members inQuebecwho inspired trade unions across the globe to support them,” said Daniel Roy, USW Quebec Director.
“After union members around the world learned that our members were selflessly fighting to protect their community and future generations of workers, support and funds came pouring in,”Roysaid.
In March, a delegation of ILWU members including ILWU Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams, joined thousands of demonstrators in a massive protest in Alma, Quebec to demonstrate support for the locked out workers and their families.
Local 13 sent one of the larger international delegations with seven members that included Christine Aguirre, Sunshine Garcia Campbell, Melody Hall, Luke Hollingsworth, Mark Jurisic, Jeff Linares, and Jimmy Monti. Local 13 President Joe Cortez decided to send the delegation after meeting in his office with representative of the locked-out workers in February.
Also attending were ILWU members who work at Rio Tinto’s U.S. Borax operations in California; Chuck Kennedy from Local 30 in Boron and Local 20 members Mike Clark and Dan Fraysure from the company’s operation in Wilmington.
Romeo Bordignon, Dispatcher at Local 502 in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, travelled from the West Coast to represent ILWU Canada members at the event.
The international solidarity was no accident, thanks to a meeting in Alma planned by the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) and International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mines and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM).
The groups represent a combined membership of 50 million union workers worldwide. ILWU Secretary-Treasurer Adams represented the ILWU at the meeting where international solidarity efforts were coordinated.
“Our members and their families suffered for six long months but never wavered,” said USW Local 9490 President Marc Maltais.
“It began in the small town ofAlma, but it became a defining labour struggle inQuebec,Canada, and around the world,” Maltais said. “Our members are walking back into the plant as heroes.”
“As they return to their jobs, our members will work to rebuild our relationship with Rio Tinto management,” said Ken Neumann, USW Canadian National Director.
“The USW will continue working with unions around the world to demand that Rio Tinto respect workers’ and human rights and the environment,” Neumann added. “We know there will be new attacks by Rio Tinto on trade unions and communities. The Steelworkers will be there to help them resist Rio Tinto’s assaults.”
The Alma workers were locked out in late December 2011, after they refused to accept Rio Tinto’s demand that retiring employees be replaced by non-union contract workers earning half the wages and no pensions or benefits. The USW maintained Rio Tinto’s plan was to increase profits at the expense of young workers and the community.
The new contract rejects Rio Tinto’s demand. Contracting out will be strictly managed and limited for the collective agreement’s duration, up to Dec. 31, 2015.
Throughout the lockout, the Quebec Steelworkers worked closely with the Quebec Federation of Labour to build public support and to expose a secret deal between Rio Tinto and publicly owned Quebec Hydro.
The secret deal allowed Rio Tinto to sell theAlmasmelter’s unused electricity back to Quebec Hydro, for up to $15 million per month. In effect, Quebeckers were forced to finance Rio Tinto’s attack onQuebecworkers. The secret deal remains a major political controversy inQuebec.
Quebec Steelworkers Marc Maltais and Guy Farrell travelled the globe to build support for theAlmaworkers and develop a dynamic international campaign. On March 31, 8,000 union members fromCanada, theU.S., Europe, Africa andAustraliaattended a historic rally inAlma.
A key component of the global campaign against Rio Tinto was to expose the company’s hypocrisy as official supplier of the metal used to make 4,700 Olympic medals for the 2012 London Summer Games.
The London Games promised to be the greenest and most sustainable Olympics ever. But these principles were contradicted by the official designation granted Rio Tinto, given the company’s long record of alleged labour and human rights abuses and environmental destruction.
More than 13,000 persons wrote letters to the International and Canadian Olympic committees protesting Rio Tinto’s involvement in the London Olympics (see www.offthepodium.org).
Fifty national trade unions in 37 countries sent letters to their respective Olympic committees asking that Rio Tinto be taken off the Olympic podium. Demonstrations were held in several nations on three continents, including theSwitzerlandheadquarters of the International Olympic Committee.
USW Local 392 inUtah, whose members mined the metal for the Olympic medals, also demanded that Rio Tinto be taken off the podium.
Major support came from Unite, the largest private-sector union in theUnited Kingdom. Unite, which joined forces with the USW to create Workers Uniting, the first global union, became the face of the campaign with the London Olympics.
Other major supporters included the ILWU, Canadian Labour Congress; Mining and Maritime Trade Union Initiative; the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia; the Australian Workers Union and the Australia Maritime Union; the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communication Energy and Paperworkers Union; trade unions of the Rio Tinto European Works Council; and IndustriALL, a new global federation representing union affiliates with over 50 million workers.