Vametco

Protest at the Headquarters of Strategic Minerals Corporation

19 November 1995 in Danbury, Connecticut, USA

SAEPEJ and GreenPeace organized a wreath laying ceremony and press conference at the headquarters of Strategic Minerals Corporation, the owners of the deadly Vametco vanadium mine in South Africa. The ceremony was scheduled on the same day as the wreath l aying ceremony at the mine gates in South Africa to commemorate the deaths of former workers.

Contents Background on Stratcor/Vametco
Report on the Protest
Information About Vanadium

Background on Stratcor/Vametco

VAMETCO, a vanadium mine in South Africa and owned by Strategic Minerals Corporation in Danbury Connecticut, U.S.A., has refused to discuss the health and environmental concerns of workers and nearby communities. This vanadium mine had originally agreed to investigate and address concerns about worker and community health raised at the Greater Brits Local Development Forum (in North West Province).

A number of former Vametco workers have died with symptoms of Vanadium poisoning, while young children and old people living nearby have a high incidence of respiratory illnesses which they claim is from the mine dust which blows off open dumps. There are also claims that the mine has polluted the subterranean water in the area.

The mine has been presented by worker and community structures with requests for information, but appears to be reluctant to cooperate.

A medical examination conducted in 1992 by the National Center for Occupational Health (NCOH) at the request of the Legal Resource Center in Pretoria on 67 former workers of the mine indicated that 41 of them reported chest pain, bronchitis or asthma and one of them had cancer of the larynx.

"The dust blowing off the mine dumps makes children and old people ill, the community has seen what has happened to the workers and we are afraid," said Louis Khompela, the chairman of the civic association at Mothotlung township some five kilometers fro m the mine. Borehole water on which the villagers depend is allegedly contaminated by vanadium and chemicals used in the mine infect people and their livestock.

"The problem at the mine dates back to 1990 when the mine workers went on strike over salary deductions that were made without their consent for clothing, canteen and medical coverage and also because of unhealthy working conditions," said National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) official Jacob Ngakane.

"On the day of the strike the workers were locked in and the former Bophuthatswana police were called, ten strikers including a shop steward, Mohammed Rashid and a trade unionist, Tsheko Ngalo, were detained for a week without being charged. Workers went on strike despite a ban on trade unions organizing in the homeland," says Ngakane.

"Following the strike all the workers were dismissed and later others were re-employed. Workers who applied for re-employment were medically examined by doctors arranged by the mine management and those with signs of vanadium poisoning were allegedly tur ned down," added Ngakane.

Ngakane said conditions at the mine are still the same since 300 mine workers went on strike over a salary dispute and the health conditions five years ago. "Attempts to engage the management in negotiations to address the working conditions and compensat ion for the families of the victims have failed," Ngakane says.

The workers and communities of Mothutlung (population 12,000) and Rankotea (population 2000), outside of the town of Brits in the North West Province in South Africa, have requested assistance in addressing what they believe to be a growing problem. Prese nt workers at the mine report chest and coughing problems, with many of them having blue-green tongues associated with Vanadium poisoning.

Community and worker representatives would like an independent investigation conducted into worker health and environmental problems they are experiencing. Former workers who were fired during a strike would like to claim compensation for the medical prob lems they are experiencing.

Report on the Protest

When we received the fax from Jacob Ngakane via Chris Albertyn on the 14th of November which informed us that the wreath laying ceremony at Vametco was to be held on the 19th of November, we scrambled to organize a similar event at Vametco's parent compan y's offices, Strategic Minerals Corporation., in Danbury, Connecticut. We had been working closely with EJNF and Jacob Ngakane from the regional COSATU office around the issues facing workers, former workers and the community around vanadium poisoning. We had been talking to various allies about this case and worked closely with Global Response in Colorado to send out a mailing to their activist networks to write letters to Strategic Minerals Corporation's president, William Beattie.

In fact, we recall that our first conversation about Vametco occurred when Jacob Moatshe from the Oukasie Development Trust visited Boston in July 1995. We had a lengthy discussion around this case and moved to look closer at it. Days later we heard from Chris Albertyn. In the meantime, we were all trying to get more information on Strategic Minerals Corporation and planning coalitions in the US to implement the international pressure.

So, when we received the fax, we immediately called Scott Daugherty at the local Greenpeace office who knew some of the details of this case. We began to write the press advisories and start calling up various allies to endorse the action. We faxed the in formation to at least 40 organizations and individuals who in turn faxed to their networks. An alert had also gone out on Econet, Labornet and Peacenet.

By Saturday, endorsers included the United Auto Workers -- Region 9A, Haiti Communications Project, Greenpeace, Haymarket People's Fund, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, FREESA, Development Fund for South Africa, Northeast Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Peace Action and Alice McComb of Mining Issues. By this time, we had also received at least 10 copies of letters written to Mr. Beattie through the Global Response network. One letter was from the National Vice-President of the Confederation of Canadian Unions offering their support and a copy of a letter sent to Mr. Beattie on behalf of the 1,300 workers at the York University Staff Association.

On Saturday, members of SAEPEJ and Greenpeace worked on decorating the wreaths and making banners and placards. On Sunday, November 19 at 9am approximately 15 people gathered at the Boston Greenpeace office to make final preparations for the action in Dan bury, CT. Two vans and three cars left at 10am for the two and half hour drive south-west of Boston.

We arrived at the Waldbaum Supermarket's parking lot at 12:15pm and were soon greeted by others from New York City, New Haven, Danbury, Bridgeport, Hartford and Amherst (MA). Approximately 35-40 people were at the ceremony including William Beattie, Presi dent of Stratcor. Members of the local Danbury News-Times were also present to cover the event. The Danbury-News Times ran an article on Saturday, November 18 on our action.

We had arranged ten decorated wreaths with the worker's names on them in front of nine mourning puppets. One of the wreaths was placed on a tripod draped with the South African flag. Protesters stood next to the table with banners and placards saying: "En vironmental Justice for All, Stratcor and Vametco STOP Poisoning South Africans"; "No Poisoning for Profit"; "Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa". There were students, international, local, regional and national activists in the crowd. Members of the United Auto Work ers Region 9A, Warriors for Real Welfare Reform, Greenpeace, SAEPEJ, church representatives, and local residents were present at the action.

The day began around 1:20pm when Heeten Kalan from SAEPEJ opened the ceremony with a background on Vametco/Stratcor and the workers'/community's demands. He also refuted some of the comments from William Beattie as quoted in the previous day's newspaper a rticle. Dr. Richard Clapp from the Boston University's School of Public Health and a long-time anti-apartheid activist spoke about vanadium poisoning and its impact on people's health. Lu Blain, an environmental justice activist from New York City spoke a bout the links to domestic environmental justice issues and their relevance to the Vametco case. Next we had Scott Daugherty from Greenpeace who made the connections with the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa in Nigeria and the need to expose multinational companie s and their outrageous worker/environmental standards. Then Julie Kushner from the UAW Region 9A made the case for supporting other struggles and the need to move forward together. Nancy Santana from Warriors for Real Welfare Reform, a group of mothers on welfare confronting the national government on welfare cuts and economic mismanagement, wanted to go on the record to show solidarity with the South African workers and that they were happy to join us for the action. The ceremony ended with a prayer from Rev. Hopeton Scott from Bridgeport, CT. He asked us to pray for the workers and continue to struggle against all forces of oppression.

Towards the end, Mr. Beattie asked Scott Daugherty if he could address the gathering. Scott and Heeten decided not to give him the forum. At the beginning of the event, Mr. Beattie approached Scott and Heeten and said that he was willing to meet with us. We agreed to meet with him after our ceremony. He had originally asked to meet him in his office but we declined that venue and opted for a local restaurant as a more neutral ground to meet.

Soon after the ceremony, approximately 16 of us joined Mr. and Mrs. Beattie at a local restaurant to discuss the issue. Mr. Beattie was given a chance to present his side of the issue first. According to him, the problems first began in 1990 when the Boph utatswana did not recognize South African trade unions organizing their plant. He claims that Vametco agreed to having an advisor from the South African unions present at negotiations. He seems to blame the problems on the approximately 100 workers who re fused to come back to work. As far as he was concerned these 100 disgruntled workers are driving the process and in fact are even using forms of intimidation to get widows to testify that their husbands died from vanadium poisoning. He continued to stress that there are no long terms effects of vanadium poisoning and all effects are short-term.

He went on to describe the various high ratings Vametco has received around workplace safety issues and the safety equipment in terms of respirators and air monitors. He claimed that in his experience he knows of no worker who has shown symptoms of vanadi um poisoning at Vametco and neither him nor Mr. Enslin know a worker who has experienced a discoloration of the tongue.

Mr. Beattie insisted that vanadium cannot have caused the workers' deaths (he mentioned smoking as a possible cause) and that the NCOH study showed that there was "no link" between vanadium and the symptoms that they found. Mr. Beattie said he could not r emember seeing or hearing about anyone with "green-black tongue" at Vametco in the past ten years. Dick Clapp promised to provide a list of references to Mr. Beattie about the health effects (some of them chronic) seen in vanadium-exposed workers, and th at at least one of these references documents a death due to pulmonary disease in one of the cases studied.

He admitted that there was a problem with a leak in one of the pits and they were spending approximately $1 million to fix that problem. He also acknowledges the issue regarding mine tailings but thinks that those are mere short-term effects and they are rectifying this problem which only affects the community downwind.

He informed us that the mining pit operation was closed down about a year ago and the mill producing vanadium-oxide is only in operation. Their milling and processing is the major facility there.

He also asked why the former workers who pointing fingers at Vametco were also so keen to get their jobs back and that this was a paradox. He continued to suggest that these 100 disgruntled workers were the cause of the problems and that NUM was a friend of Vametco and they always saw themselves as good neighbours.

We challenged him on a number of issues and eventually ended the meeting with a strong urging to move forward on the issue. We will continue to place the pressure on our side and we have already been receiving letters of support and solidarity. The Danbur y News-Times reported on our ceremony in their Monday edition and printed two nice photographs as well. We feel that we have started a process of pressuring Stratcor. and this was a positive first step. The highlight for everyone was that a similar ceremo ny occurred on the same day in South Africa. Together we can move forward and not stand by as people suffer and die.

Information About Vanadium

This section adapted from the Vanadium fact sheet of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, September 1995

This fact sheet answers the most frequently asked health questions about vanadium. This fact sheet is one in a series of summaries about hazardous substances and their health effects. This information is important because this substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed, personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are present.

SUMMARY: Everyone is exposed to low levels of vanadium in air, water, and food; however, most people are exposed mainly from food. Breathing high levels of vanadium may cause lung irritation, chest pain, coughing, and other effects. This chemical has b een found in at least 385 of 1,416 National Priorities List sites identified by the Environmental Protection Agency.