As Vale Inco nickel miners’ walkout in Ontario prepares to enter second week, critical lessons posed by 2009-10 strike
A few hours after the beginning of the strike at the Vale Inco nickel mining complex in Sudbury, Ontario, last Tuesday, company security called police on picketing miners. The incident took place shortly after miners, members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500, decisively voted down a concessions contract recommended by the union. After rejecting the agreement, the workers had quickly moved to set up picket lines at several entrances to the mines and processing centers at midnight on June 1.
WSWS speaks to Vale Inco strikers and supporters in Sudbury
It is one year until the provincial election and political organizers across northeastern Ontario are getting ready for the race, while also prepping for a federal campaign that could come first.
TORONTO The Progressive Conservative Party has a significant financial foothold a year ahead of the next provincial election, as political strategists say the 2022 vote will serve as a referendum of Doug Ford’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was in 2018 that Ford and the Progressive Conservative Party overturned 15 years of Liberal governance in Ontario with the promise of economic growth and “prosperity the likes of which this province has never known before.” Four years later, Ford’s future in provincial politics will likely be dictated by his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic instead a fact not lost on the Progressive Conservatives as they worked over the last six months to solidify political contributions through email campaigns and $1,000-a-ticket virtual fundraisers.