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David V. Pathe
President and Chief Executive Officer
Sherritt International Corporation
1133 Yonge Street Toronto, Ontario M4T 2Y7
Mr. Pathe,
Further to recent correspondence you have received from Mr. Jyrke Raina of IndustriAll, Unifor wants to add its concern over the situation at Sheritt Ambatovy in Madagascar.
Unifor takes these charges very seriously and strongly advises that Sherritt International do likewise. The mass firing of 900 workers is clearly directly related to the fact that these workers engaged in lawful strikes. The reaction of Sherritt in this situation appears to be nothing short of union busting.
Unifor highly regards its relationship with Sherritt in Canada, and I appeal to you to immediately remedy the unacceptable situation in Madagascar by responding to the four requests of Mr. Raina in his letter, to reinstate workers with back pay, to give priority to Works Council members, to ensure that intimidation of workers is ceased and to provide financial and other information to the unions at Ambatovy.
The treatment of workers at Sherritt Ambatovy would not be tolerated in Canada, where the right to strike has been upheld as a Charter Right by our Supreme Court. Certainly Sherritt should have the same standards in Madagascar or any other global operation.
If my office can be of any assistance in facilitating communications with IndustriAll or in resolving the dispute at Ambatovy, please do not hesitate to call on us.
