(The following article is from the March 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Ontario Bureau

Seven busloads of angry miners arrived at Tony Clement's door on Feb. 23, demanding the federal government intervene to stop 700 illegal layoffs at Sudbury's Falconbridge mines, announced Feb. 9 by Swiss mining company Xstrata.

     Dwight Harper, President of CAW Local 598 Mine Mill, said Xstrata has violated the terms of the 2006 agreement whereby Investment Canada approved the takeover of Falconbridge in exchange for guarantees of no layoffs for at least three years.

     Xstrata will also close three mines in Sudbury, citing low commodity prices for nickel and high operating costs - the usual reasons given by mining companies for layoffs and closures in the hardscrabble boom-bust cycle of life in Ontario's mining towns.

     Industry Minister Tony Clement, who approved the company's decision to break the 2006 agreement, is thought to have done so at a meeting with the company a week before the announcements.

     The union is demanding transcripts of the meeting, along with a copy of the original agreement with Investment Canada that opened the door to the sale. Falconbridge and Inco were sold to foreign-based companies respectively in the last five years. The takeovers sent shock waves across Canada, marking another huge step in the foreign takeover of the country's nickel and natural resources.

     Forcing the company to adhere to the July 2009 date for any layoffs would provide workers with an additional seven weeks of pay and seniority. This demand is supported by local NDP MPPs, Labour Councils in Sudbury and Huntsville (where Clement's office is located), and by workers facing the bleak prospect of indefinite layoffs in a single industry town.

     The Communist Party also supports the union's demands, but is further demanding that the federal government intervene to stop the layoffs altogether. "Not now, and not in July" said Communist Party (Ontario) leader Liz Rowley. "There's no reason for layoffs except falling profits - corporate greed in other words, and that's no reason to throw a community overboard. In fact, these layoffs will deepen the recession in Canada and threaten workers and communities across northern Ontario. And they'll send a message to Inco that governments in Canada roll over on demand."

     "It's time we looked at nationalizing the nickel companies, putting them under public ownership and democratic control," said Rowley. "It's pretty clear the interests of these transnational corporations are at odds with the interests of the country as well as the community and the workers."

     "And it's time we had plant closure legislation that would force these corporations - including the transnational mining companies - to justify layoffs and closures before public tribunals that have the powers to stop and prevent them," she said. "Xstrata needs to get the message that workers and communities aren't disposable."