Additional reporting by Rand Wilson.
On Friday, April 16th, Jobs with Justice coalitions in Seattle, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Boston joined protesters in front of British Consulates in those cities to demand justice for 570 California miners who have been locked-out of work by the Rio Tinto mining corporation, a British-based mining conglomerate, since January 31, 2010 at the world’s 2nd largest borax mine in Boron, CA.
Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies, has a history of human rights abuses around the globe. In Boron, California, the company retaliated against employees, members of the ILWU, and instituted the “lock-out” after workers rejected a company ultimatum that included illegal contract demands and provisions allowing the company to convert good full-time jobs into part-time, temporary, and outsourced positions with little or no benefits.
“Today’s action was a powerful demonstration of solidarity by ILWU locals and other labor and social justice groups in the SF Bay Area for the mineworkers in Boron, which is in a relatively remote part of California,” said Gordon Mar of Jobs with Justice San Francisco.
These solidarity actions are
Continue reading Solidarity with Rio Tinto Locked-Out Miners
Yet another example of why working people need the Employee Free Choice Act. In 2006, warehouse workers in Lancaster, CA decided they wanted to form a union. Despite the company’s attacks, a majority the of the workers voted to join ILWU Local 26 in March 2008. But more than a year later, the 