| On April 15, the locked-out Rio Tinto Alcan Alma workers began the second part of their international tour to mobilize global support for their struggle. Once again, the delegation representing the Alma workers is composed of Marc Maltais, the President of the Syndicat des travailleurs de l'aluminium d'Alma and Guy Farrell, the Assistant to the Quebec Director of the United Steelworkers. This 10-day tour of Europe has visited England and France. The workers and economies of both these countries have been affected by aluminum plant closures. At the end of March, Rio Tinto Alcan closed the Alcan Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter in Northumberland on the northeastern coast of England, using the pretext of rising costs due to environmental regulations. More than 500 workers were thrown onto the streets and many more jobs connected to the smelter will be lost. Rio Tinto Alcan was by far the biggest employer in Northumberland. In France, Rio Tinto Alcan is threatening to close its smelter in the small town of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in southeastern France that employs 600 workers and is the centre of the region's metallurgical industry. The deal Rio Tinto has with Électricité de France for hydro-electricity expires in 2014 and it is using the occasion of the renewal of this deal to threaten to close the plant if it does not get what it wants. On April 19, workers and community members from various countries demonstrated outside the Rio Tinto shareholders' meeting in London against Rio Tinto's track record of attacks against the workers and communities. The delegation representing the locked-out Alma workers participated alongside workers from the British union Unite, the International Transport Federation and others. The demonstrators also demanded that the International Olympic Committee drop Rio Tinto as its supplier of medals and an official sponsor of the London Olympic games. The demonstrators asked that Rio Tinto lift its lockout against the Alma workers and sign a contract that is acceptable to them and the community. Demostrators from Mongolia highlighted their concern about the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mining project, a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines, Rio Tinto and the Government of Mongolia. The mine is in a desert region and a key concern is that it is going to use huge quantities of water and affect the water supply of local communities and nomadic herders. People also protested Rio Tinto's refusal to answer the concerns of the communities over toxic emissions coming from its mining operations. Utah Mothers for Clean Air denounced Rio Tinto's environmental degradation in the Salt Lake City area from its Kennecott Bingham Canyon copper mine. Also denounced were the attacks on workers and the environment by Rio Tinto in West Papua and Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. The residents of Bougainville blame Rio Tinto for its participation in the violent attacks of the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea against the uprising of the people of Bougainville Island in the 1980s, where Rio Tinto operated one of the world's biggest open pit copper mines. Bougainville residents, who were part of the London action, have been pursuing a class action lawsuit in the U.S. against Rio Tinto since 2000 for environmental degradation and war crimes. A number of workers and community members intervened inside the meeting including Guy Farrell, the Assistant to the Quebec Director of the United Steelworkers, who denounced the lockout in Alma and asked that it immediately be lifted. Rio Tinto's CEO Tom Albanese arrogantly brushed off the concerns of the workers and of those who had travelled from the U.S. and Mongolia to denounce the attacks on the environment. He repeated the lies and slanders according to which the just demands of the Alma workers about working conditions and in defence of the union are unreasonable and would cause a dangerous precedent in Rio Tinto's facilities across the world if they were to be satisfied. He also disgraced himself by repeating the slander that the lockout was justified because the Alma workers were sabotaging production. He said that Rio Tinto's track record on the environment is great and cut off any discussion on this matter. He refused to let Marc Maltais speak and was denounced by the workers present for his arrogance and cowardice. The delegation representing the Alma workers left England for France following the action with the first stop in Dunkerque where Rio Tinto owns an aluminum smelter. Marc Maltais, President, Syndicat des travailleurs de l'aluminium d'Alma: For us the shareholders' meeting was an opportunity to try to influence the shareholders. But Tom Albanese and the other Rio Tinto executives were very arrogant when they answered questions and actually refused to answer many from the people in the room. Tom Albanese simply laughed in my face every time I raised my card insisting to ask my question and there was no way they would allow me to speak. Overall their attitude was that they felt cornered and refused to give answers; it was total intransigence. And it was not only myself. Albanese did not answer the questions from the Utah mothers and the person who travelled all the way from Mongolia on their concerns about Rio Tinto's track record on the environment. Rio Tinto is all alone and refuses to address concerns from anybody in this world. It applies the same method everywhere. The tribal chief from Papua New Guinea who came to London to protest Rio Tinto's attacks on his people even decided not to attend the meeting and went instead to talk to students in an elementary school because at least they listen. In my case I was not even allowed to raise my question. Albanese knows me; we have met before. As soon as Guy Farrell and I arrived in the hall, we were greeted by two head security staff -- one from Quebec and one from Switzerland. They knew my name and Guy's name. I crossed the Atlantic to come to the meeting and Albanese sneered at me. He showed no respect for myself and our membership. He does not respect the hard work and professionalism of the Alma workers. They allowed Guy to speak; I think they didn't recognize him. Farrell asked how could Rio Tinto justify locking out the workers at its most profitable aluminum smelter. Albanese spoke against our demand for guaranteed minimum levels of employment and he went so far as to repeat the false accusations that Alma workers were sabotaging the plant. He made no sense at all. Then Farrell asked if Rio Tinto was interested in negotiating in good faith with the Alma workers and when were they coming back to the bargaining table and Albanese answered that there might be negotiations soon. There was a good demonstration outside the meeting with workers from Unite, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and people from communities in many countries where Rio Tinto operates. Closure at Lynemouth Until 2009, RTA operated three aluminum smelters in the United Kingdom: the one at Anglesey in North Wales, jointly owned by RTA and Kaiser Aluminum; the one in Lynemouth in northeastern England and the Lochaber smelter in Fort William, Scotland. While the Anglesey facility was closed in 2009 over termination of an electric power contract when RTA rejected new conditions, the Lochaber facility is still in operation. On March 29, Rio Tinto Alcan stopped production for good at the Lynemouth facility. Of the 515 workers who were working there, 323 will be laid off permanently in May. Over 100 are expected to stay until year's end in the carbon and casting plants and about 60 workers are expected to remain at work decommissioning and decontaminating the facility. Besides the 515 direct job losses, the unions and local politicians estimate over 3,500 workers in the smelter's supply chain are going to lose their jobs. RTA also owns a coal and biomass-fired power plant in Lynemouth that produced electricity for the smelter while excess power is sold to the national grid. The power station employs 111 workers and at the moment Rio Tinto says it is trying to sell it; otherwise, it may close as well. The smelter is by far the biggest private employer in southern Northumberland county where Lynemouth is located and is the last major manufacturing plant in the area. The blow to the workers and community is particularly severe considering that according to the GMB -- Britain's General Union -- as of the end of 2011 over 146,000 people were unemployed in northeastern England, a rate of 11.6 per cent, the highest in the UK. The area has long been affected by high unemployment and under the hoax of reducing it the government at the beginning of the 1970s gave large amounts of public money to Alcan to build the smelter and the coal-fired power plant. RTA announced the smelter's closure at the end of November 2011, totally indifferent to the fact it provided livelihoods directly or indirectly to thousands of people in an area suffering high unemployment and is a centre of integrated economic activity with a chain of suppliers, a deep sea port, railway, power station and all kinds of services and is one of the last producers of primary aluminum in the UK. RTA blames rising energy costs because of environmental legislation and an insufficient rate of return on investments to try to justify the closure. Besides, RTA's CEO Jacynthe Côté went so far as to suggest that, with some sadness, the workers agreed with the closure after what she called a "fair and transparent consultation process." She said: "I am saddened by the closure of Lynemouth Smelter but we have reached this decision only after a thorough strategic review of the plant and a fair and transparent consultation process. I have met with Lynemouth unions and staff members and I have great respect for the manner in which they have represented their colleagues during consultation." The so-called strategic review exposes the monopoly's self-serving considerations. According to RTA, the first consideration was rising energy costs related to environmental regulations. The mainly coal-driven power plant is known for the pollution it causes the community. New carbon taxes are expected to be put in place by the European Union and Britain by 2013. RTA says the measures it will have to take to reduce emissions will reduce profits and therefore claims it is justified to shut down production and leave the area stranded. For a number of years it has asked for public money to be spent to reduce its emissions, another example of this monopoly refusing to take responsibility for its activities. However, many people in the area point out environmental legislation is not the whole story to explain why RTA is closing Lynemouth. They base themselves on actual statements made by Rio Tinto executives that highlight Rio Tinto's new policy of demanding a 40 per cent rate of return for investments in its aluminum facilities. One of these executives, John McCabe, of RTA Corporate Affairs, was quoted in the press regarding the closure: "Rio Tinto is streamlining its global aluminium business in order to focus on its top assets globally, unfortunately Lynemouth isn't considered to be one of them as it does not return a 40 per cent rate of return for the business." As far as the 90-day so-called consultation with the unions and stakeholders is concerned, it was never about whether or not the smelter would close and instead was on workforce re-training and similar measures. Jacynthe Côté's statement suggesting the workers accept the closure and believe in her fair and transparent process flies in the face of reality. Here, for example, is what the GMB union stated in a communiqué at the end of November 2011: "GMB, the largest private sector union in the North East of England, reacted with fury at the decision by RTA to close its aluminium smelter in Lynemouth, Northumberland. The Company intends to close the Lynemouth Smelter with the loss of 515 workers and its nearby Power Station with a further 111 workers to go...This decision by Rio Tinto is a disgrace. Rio Tinto bought this firm for several billions just a couple of years ago. It appears that they are dressing up a strategic review and the decision to close, to disguise the money they paid out at the very time when the world recession was starting to bite. We want to know if public money was used to get Rio Tinto to buy in the first place and if so what is going to happen about that. GMB members want to know why they are making this decision yet saying for instance that the Power Station could be sold as a going concern. Why don't they find other ways of keeping the plants open instead of making an announcement and then saying they are going to have a 90 day consultation. At the very time when 146,000 people are unemployed in the North East, a rate of 11.6%, the highest in the UK, this is a callous move by Rio Tinto. At a time when youth unemployment is the worst since 1992, this is a huge blow to manufacturing and to the local economy. The announcement reinforces the need for the government to intervene to protect local communities. Pious words about re-training and seeing what skill matching is available fools no-one. It is brutal out there and people need to wake up and realize what a critical state the economy is in now and act now." |