SUPPORT STRIKING SUDBURY STEELWORKERS! from the October 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, 2009

(The following article is from the October 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

The Ontario Committee of the Communist Party of Canada, meeting in Toronto on Sept. 20, condemned the Vale corporation for its hostility to Canadian workers and labour laws, and the threat it poses to the Sudbury community with its decision to use scabs in a provocative and dangerous effort to break the strike.

"We call on the Federal government to nationalize the Canadian operations of this multinational corporation without further delay, repealing the 2006 agreement which allowed Vale to purchase the Canadian owned Inco," said the Ontario Committee.

"Vale's purchase of the mines and operations in Sudbury, Port Colborne and Voisey's Bay should not have been permitted in the first place, as the Sudbury mines are now wholly owned by foreign interests, at the expense of Canada's sovereignty.

"Vale is a vicious multinational employer bent on cutting the wages, pensions, benefits and working conditions of workers employed in one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. Their aim is to inflate bloated profits, and use the current downturn in nickel prices to undermine free collective bargaining and slash the living standards and quality of life of Inco workers. "Vale is demonstrating its sheer greed, and is in complete contravention of the rights of workers in Canada, and the public interest.

"Federal and provincial governments must take immediate action to protect workers, instead of protecting the companies that are exploiting them, and the resources that properly belong to all the people of Canada.

"The Communist Party stands in full support of the members of Local 6500 USWA in their just struggle to defend their livelihoods, their families, and their community. An injury to one is an injury to all!"