RE: reminder of Rio Tinto and Olympic medal
Steelworkers education and strategic campaigns director Joe Drexler states the following re the protest against using Rio Tinto metal for the Olympic medals.
Rio Tinto is marking itself as one of the darkest in a very dark industry. Any company that engages in environmental destruction and abuse of human rights is inevitably also committing abuses of its workers. That usually goes hand in hand and Rio Tinto is no different…We are demanding Rio Tinto not be allowed to taint the solidarity and spirit of the Olympic Games by forcing athletes to wear tainted and tarnished medals.
At Rio Tinto’s annual shareholder meeting in London April 19, workers, community members and environmentalists from around the world will air their grievances in front of investors and announce the campaign around the Olympic Games. They will also hold several other events in London related to the Olympic campaign that week.
Among the attendees will be workers from Rio Tinto’s enormous Utah mine, Mongolian workers and residents affected by Rio Tinto operations, and two Steelworkers locked out of the Rio Tinto Alcan aluminum smelter in the town of Alma in the Saguenay-Lac St. Jean region of Quebec. The 780 workers were locked out on Dec. 30 during a dispute over the company’s attempt to replace unionists with non-union, lower-paid sub-contractors. On March 31, thousands demonstrated against the lockout, including labor leaders from five continents.