Miners protest

A Workers Uniting – Unite and United Steelworkers (USW) – delegation, representing 450 locked-out Texan miners, protested outside mining multinational Glencore’s HQ in London today (December 10) to kick start a global campaign against the mining giant’s appalling labour abuses.

Unite has warned that the company’s attempts to starve workers into signing away health and other benefits will fail.

Around 450 workers at the Sherwin Alumina refinery in Texas – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Glencore – have been locked out of their jobs since October 11, after rejecting the company’s wage and benefit cuts ultimatum.

In this film we interview locked out miner, Jesse Green, who has travelled from Texas to hand in a letter to Glencore chief executive officer Ivan Glasenberg calling on the company to negotiate in good faith with communities and unions to resolve all labour concerns, including the end to the lock out of USW members in Texas.

The action marks the start of a global campaign, led by IndustriALL against Glencore’s appalling human, environmental and workers’ rights records, which includes the lock out in Texas and disputes at mines in Peru, South Africa and Colombia.