Petition Denouncing Vale's Attacks 'Catching Fire' on Twitter

TORONTO , Nov. 25 /CNW/ - An international campaign denouncing mining giant Vale Inco's attacks on workers is fuelling one of the largest petitions on the social networking service Twitter.

The Vale petition drew hundreds of Tweets and was ranked by Twitter as its "hottest" on Monday - its first day on the site. On Tuesday it remained the largest Twitter petition this week. The petition marks the first foray into the Twitter world for a USW campaign.

"The United Steelworkers and its allies continue to break new ground with our response to Vale Inco's attack on Canadian communities and working families," said Ken Neumann , USW's National Director for Canada .

Vale Inco provoked a strike by 3,500 USW members in Sudbury, Port Colborne and Voisey's Bay by demanding deep concessions from workers. This attack is being waged on working families and their communities despite Vale's extraordinary profits.

"Our battle is receiving global support and our campaign against Vale's aggression is gaining momentum as we build alliances with working people and communities on every continent," Neumann said. "Working people everywhere understand what is at stake and detest the greed of a massively profitable corporation trying to extract huge concessions from workers and communities."

Each Tweet for the Vale Inco petition also generates an email protest message to Vale through a campaign launched this month by LabourStart, the international online news service. The campaign already has resulted in thousands of protest messages sent to Vale CEO Roger Agnelli .

To join the Twitter petition, visit: http://act.ly/1es.

To join the LabourStart campaign, visit: http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=595.

For daily updates on the USW's strike against Vale Inco, visit: FairDealNow.ca.

For further information: Ken Neumann, USW National Director for Canada, [phone]; Denis St. Pierre, USW Communications, [phone], [phone], [email protected]