Event to Help Locked-Out Rio Tinto Borax Workers

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Event To Be Held Supporting Locked-Out Rio Tinto Borax Workers

Contact: Gabriel Caplett; gcaplett@gmail.com; 906.226.6649

Yellow Dog Summer will hold an event on February 15, at 7:00 pm, in the Chapel of Messiah Lutheran Church, located at 305 W. Magnetic St., Marquette, Michigan in support of the roughly 560 workers in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 30 who were locked out of their jobs at Rio Tinto’s Borax mine, in southern California on January 31.

The event will feature informal speakers, a film showing and refreshments.

“With Rio Tinto trying to slip through the backdoor in our community, we must stand in solidarity with the Borax workers and demand that Rio Tinto finally make good on their claims to respect worker rights and labor laws wherever the company operates,” said Yellow Dog Summer organizer Teresa Bertossi.

The International Mining and Maritime Unions have called for “worldwide solidarity actions” to take place on February 15. The ILWU Local 30 is supported by the more than 20 million member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), the Maritime Union of Australia, the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union – Mining and Energy division (CFMEU) and a number of other miners’ unions around the world.

In an October 15 support letter the Maritime Union and CFMEU said:

“While our Unions have had a long and bitter experience with Rio Tinto and their anti-union, anti-workforce tactics and policies here in Australia, we continue to be amazed at the way in which multi national corporations like Rio Tinto, demand and expect working men and women to sacrifice hard won conditions of employment in order to prop up already bloated corporate profits.”

Yellow Dog Summer is a citizen-based group focused on protecting the environmental and economic health and vitality of the upper Great Lakes region.

For further information please contact Gabriel Caplett at gcaplett@gmail.com or (906) 226-6649

One thought on “Event to Help Locked-Out Rio Tinto Borax Workers”

  1. I have worked for US Borax for over 25 years.
    Prior to the lockout we have been told we are the world class operators, the most valuable resource the company has. Yet here we are applying for food stamps,unemployment, and accepting food from other union members( Thank you). If the company really valued us would they not let us work? To unsure quality in the product and to maintain the plant? The company has shown just how valuable we the worker actually are by this action, nothing to them, we are just miners.