Statement by AFL-CIO President Sweeney, Our Support for Clear Choice of Workers Future at ASARCO

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/statement-afl-cio-president-sweeney-our/story.aspx?guid={1458D865-4F8A-4AAD-A98C-4BBC0CC770F2}&dist=hppr

Last update: 4:21 p.m. EDT July 23, 2008
WASHINGTON, July 23, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- There are two competing business plans to bring copper company ASARCO out of bankruptcy, but only one of them serves the interests of the company's many employees and their families.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Image.aspx?Guid=1458d8654f8a4aada98c4bbc0cc770f2&Track=201

The decision is now in the hands of the U.S. Justice Department and the Attorneys General from 22 states, the company's largest creditors due to large environmental liabilities.
The new company that controls ASARCO will retain responsibility for significant liabilities. And as creditors, the Attorneys General have a critical stake in assuring that the reorganized ASARCO will make good on its commitments.
We urge those decision makers to support the bid by Vedanta Resources PLC to assure a future for the workers and their families at ASARCO and to reject the competing inferior offer by the other bidder, Grupo Mexico.
The 1,500 copper miners of the United Steelworkers (USW) employed at ASARCO mines and smelters in Arizona and Texas know first hand what it's like to work for Grupo Mexico, a Mexico City-based conglomerate that owns industrial operations throughout the Western Hemisphere.
When ASARCO was controlled by Grupo Mexico from 1999 to 2005, labor relations were marked by constant strife. The company unilaterally cut health care benefits for hundreds of retirees and halted disability benefits for other employees.

FULL story at link above.

http://www.steelworkers-usw.org