Vale Sudbury Workers Produce Enormous Social WealthOver 75,000 Vale workers throughout the world produce enormous quantities of iron ore, nickel and other minerals. In Sudbury, around 4,000 Vale workers produce mainly nickel at five mines, a mill, smelter and refinery along with production of copper, cobalt, platinum group metals, gold and silver.
None of Vale's activities in the Sudbury area is geared towards developing the natural resources so that the social wealth workers produce becomes a mainstay in building a self-reliant all-sided economy in the region and contributes to nation-building throughout Ontario and Canada. The well-being of workers, their communities, the economy and nation are not considerations of those in control and ownership of Vale. The global oligarchs are bent on extracting the natural resources to serve their voracious appetite for private profit, power and war preparations.
The demands for concessions and attacks on rights by those in control and ownership of Vale and their aim divorced from the needs of the people and nation-building are exactly what are unsustainable. A new direction is necessary where the human factor, the local and Canadian economy and the social and natural environment are the centre of considerations. A new human-centred direction begins with the rejection of the concessionary demands of the Vale oligarchs. Rejection of those demands and coming to an arrangement acceptable to the workers themselves opens a path to a new direction. All Out to Support the Just Strike Struggle of the Vale Workers!
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Workers
estimate that their production at the complex is bound to increase as
nickel and cobalt are important components in the making of batteries
for the expanding market for electric vehicles, bicycles and other
products. As an alloy with other metals, nickel is also necessary for
the production of jet turbine engines used in military and
civilian aircraft. The U.S. considers nickel and cobalt critical
strategic minerals for their war economy and demands a guaranteed
supply without concern for those who produce the product and live where
it is found. The Canadian ruling elite have long bowed down to the U.S.
and used the police powers of the state to attack the rights of Vale
workers such as the court injunction against their strike in 2009 that
allowed company scabs to enter the facilities and weaken the workers'
struggle.
Following
the decision of the Vale workers to go on strike for a collective
agreement acceptable to themselves, a company spokesperson said in a
press release, "(Vale) is committed to the long-term sustainability of
its base metals business and its Ontario operations." For the Vale
oligarchs, sustainability is achieved through attacking the human
factor, those who produce the base metals. For them sustainability is
not achieved through pouring produced wealth back into the city,
region, people and social and natural environment to sustain a vibrant
local economy and nation-building. The aim of those in control of Vale
is to rip and ship out the social product and wealth as maximum private
profit to fatten their already bloated bank accounts and for use in war
and attacking others considered competitors. Those in control of the
company view it and the social product as distinct or separate from the
human factor they employ and the needs of the Sudbury and Canadian
economy and people. The company views its base metals business
and sustainability from a very narrow viewpoint of maximum profit for
its global owners, who are mostly concerned with its quarterly reports
and price on the stock markets.