[IPSM] Alcan workers at Kitimat refuse to smelt alumina from Orissa, India

[la CLAC!]

Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 16:42:55 +0530
From: Independent Media <independent.media at gmail.com>
Subject: Alcan workers at Kitimat, B.C., refuse
to smelt alumina from Orissa, India

  From: Rajesh R. [mailto:rajeshr at taru.org]
  Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 3:03 PM
  To: dnrm at panchayats.org
  Subject: Canadian Alcan workers refuse to smelt alumina from Orissa


Alcan workers at Kitimat, B.C., refuse to smelt alumina from Orissa, India

Canadian Press
Wednesday, April 13, 2005

MONTREAL (CP) - Employees at two of Alcan Inc.'s
major smelting operations in Canada are joining
resistance to the company's proposed mining
project in the Kashipur region of India's eastern
state of Orissa.

Workers represented by the Canadian Auto Workers
through Local 2301 in Kitimat, B.C., and the
affiliated Syndicat national des employés de
l'aluminium in Arvida, Que., now have passed
resolutions supporting local Indian opposition to
the mining.

A Montreal-based group called Alcan't in India,
which has been organizing protests against the
Kashipur project, said in a release Tuesday that
another demonstration is planned for Alcan's
annual meeting April 28 in Montreal.

A resolution recently passed by CAW Local 2301
says workers at the smelting facility will
"refuse to smelt any alumina shipped to B.C. from
Alcan's eventual operations in Orissa."

For more than a decade, tribal people in Kashipur
have been fighting against plans for a
billion-dollar bauxite extraction and alumina
refining project. Alcan (TSX:AL) owns 45 per cent
of the joint venture, called Utkal Alumina
International Ltd.

  (c) The Canadian Press 2005