mining
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in manufacturing, research and development, mining and materials around the world.
Ten Years Ago - Unions vs. the Proletariat: The "Miners March" in Romania
Short introduction of the so called "Miners March", when in 1999 angry miners of the Zhil-valley (Romania) wanted to go to the capital, to protest against their circumstances. The text focuses on the ever actual confrontation between trade union leaders and proletarian interests.
Ten Years Ago - THE UNIONS vs. THE PROLETARIAT: The "Miners March" in Romania
Péter Konok
Strike at Canadian nickel mine enters its 12th week
After months of unresolved bargaining a strike began on July 13th at the Sudbury mine in northern Ontario, Canada, after employers Vale Inco refused to alter its original demands for concessions. United Steel Workers union members (USW Local 6500) in Sudbury and Port Colburne in Ontario and Voisey Bay in Labrador responded by voting 85% in favor of strike action.
The strike affects 3,073 employees at Vale's integrated mining, milling, smelting and refining operations in Sudbury, 116 employees at the Port Colborne refinery and over 200 at Voisey Bay. The concessions demanded by the company include a drastic change in pension benefits for new hires (the pension Fund is $725 million in deficit), changes to seniority rights and a cap on the "Nickel Bonus".
Indonesian villagers blockade nickel mine, win concessions
Villagers in Sorowako, Sulawesi, blockaded a major road to a mine owned by Inco, Indonesia's largest nickel company, after it announced restructuring plans.
The plans involved 87 lay-offs effective immediately, but up to 600 by the end of the year. Many villagers either work at the mine or have relatives who do. Management met with them and agreed to better severance packages as well as promising to find them employment in community projects.
Reports here:
The Asturian Strikes of 1962-1963
Guy Debord's accounts of the massive strikes by miners in Franco's Spain, translated into English for the first time.
The Asturian Strike
One dead, dozens injured as quarry workers in Egypt clash with police
A policeman died and dozens of people were injured when thousands of quarry workers and owners clashed with police in Egypt on Thursday.
The protesters marched into Al-Minya city, in the central province of Al-Minya 210 kilometers south of Cairo, and blocked a bridge spanning the Nile, to protest against a decision by the authorities to impose new duties on quarried rock, security sources said.
Police used teargas to disperse the crowd, but the protesters stoned police, injuring at least four officers, security sources said.
Strikes, hunger strikes and clashes in Greece
Strikes, hunger strikes and environmental action leading to clashes with riot police open week after weekend of state terror in Greece.
After the weekend of terror in Greece, the mid-summer week has started with a wave of strikes and environmental actions, underlining that the spine of the movement is too strong to break.
Mongolia: strike at gold mine ends in partial victory
Workers at the Boroo gold mine in Mongolia won enhanced redundancy benefits from their Canadian employer Centerra Gold Inc. on the 16th of June after a three week strike.
The union had been negotiating for months demanding higher wages, better severance pay, and investigation of potential cyanide leakage into the environment. Workers went on strike on the 26th of May when the company suddenly announced that 50 workers were to be terminated.
1926-1985: So Near - So Far - a selective history of the British miners
A long text, completed in 2005, 20 years after the end of the miners strike. It certainly has no pretensions to being complete. It covers mainly the period from '26 to '85, sometimes sketchily, sometimes in great detail, sometimes subjective, sometimes just facts. Though chronological, it jumps around in style, with texts written by different people: mainly by endangered phoenix, but also by John Dennis, Dave Douglass, the Webbs, Joe Jacobs, Solidarity, Neil Fernandez, the Spanish dockers' Co-Ordinadora, UK Wildcat and Counter-Information.
SO NEAR - SO FAR...
aspects of a history of the British miners
aspects of a history of the British miners
A Selective History of Miners' (and a few other) UK Struggles Up To And Including The 1984-5 Strike
Preamble
Belgian general strike diary, 1960 - Maurice Brinton
Maurice Brinton's vivid and captivating first hand account of the massive general strike in Belgium in 1960-61 against a new law "loi unique" to reduce workers' purchasing power.
THE BELGIAN GENERAL STRIKE: DIARY DECEMBER 28-31, 1960
THE BACKGROUND
106 workers fired over wildcat in South Africa
The world's largest ferrochrome producer, Xstrata said on Wednesday it had dismissed 106 workers at its Rustenburg smelter in South Africa for taking part in an illegal strike over pay.
The workers had demanded to be paid 50 percent of their wages as well as shift allowances during their extended leave in December, when such payments are normally not due to them, Songezo Zibi, Xstrata's spokesman said.
"They took part in a wildcat strike, an unprotected strike and did not follow the process of calling a strike," Zibi said.
