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December 15, 2011
Sudbury's experience with a
foreign-owned global giant could be instructive for Kamloops.
Both cities are about the same size and both are trying to shed their industrial
image. Kamloops rebranded itself as the Tournament Capital of Canada. Sudbury is
reshaping its landscape after decades of environmental damage.
Both cities have a major industry within their city limits. Kamloops' pulp mill
and Sudbury's open pit mine are major contributors to local economies.
Sudbury has a steeper climb in restoring its image than Kamloops. While we have
air quality issues, the land surrounding Sudbury's mine had been turned into a
lifeless moonscape. It took massive soil treatment to neutralize acidity caused
by the mine and 14 million trees planted to transform the former slag heaps into
green hills.
Kamloops hasn't had the labour problems of Sudbury either. Sudbury's troubles
began when the mine was sold to a Brazilian global mining giant. There had been
labour disputes when Inco owned the mine but Sudbury wasn't prepared for the
tactics of the new owner. Earlier disputes with the Canadian owners had been
resolved to mutual benefit of workers and owners. The workers made good wages,
the city grew, and Inco became the largest mine in Canada.
All that changed when Inco was swallowed up by the Brazilian mining company,
Vale. The purchase was part of the hollowing out of Canada of the last decade in
which many of our largest industries were bought out by global corporations.
At first it looked like business as usual as Vale talked the good talk. "Canada
is a mining country. It's a country that has the legislation, experience,
tradition, and very good people who work inside this sector. So it was very
important for us to be in a country like Canada...we had a dream to be there,"
waxed Vale's chief executive officer in 2006.
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The government of Canada was taken in by Vale's good intentions.
The new mine owners guaranteed that there would be no job cuts for three years
and that the takeover would be a "net benefit to Canada." It quickly became
apparent how shallow those promises were. Despite Vale's fine words, they
dispelled any notion that bargaining was to be done in good faith. The new
owners announced they would be shutting down the mine for eight weeks before the
current collective expired in 2009.
Then when the workers went on strike, Vale brought in scab replacements. Nothing
unusual for Vale: it was the way that Vale treated all its third-world
employees. Vale has 100,000 employees in every continent except Antarctica and
their contempt for worker's rights was as transparent as the open mines they
worked.
With massive global holdings, Vale was not interested in settling the strike
even though they were losing money. Vale claimed that Sudbury was the most
expensive mine of all their holdings and it was not sustainable. Meanwhile,
Sudbury lost $20 million per month.
At first, the Government of Canada was concerned. Federal Industry Minister Tony
Clement announced "this is not welcome news" and there might be "legal options"
to force Vale to meet its obligations. But then it dawned on Clement that Canada
runs mining operations in Brazil and there could be repercussions. Clement
changed his tune. "At this point we're not going to be proceeding with actions."
Small cities like Sudbury and Kamloops are expendable in the global operations
of large corporations. If market conditions or labour relations change, they
pick up and leave industrial sites in ruin and cities in financial turmoil.
David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at
dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca
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