Reuters
Guinea unions ask government to annul RUSAL Friguia alumina plant deal
Edited by : AL CIRCLE
2 min read
Guinean labour unions backed by the main worker federation, CNTG, have asked the government to annul a 2006 contract selling the country's Friguia alumina refinery to Russia's UC RUSAL , a union leader said.
RUSAL paid $19 million in 2006 for the refinery, a price the current government has said is too low. The government of the West African country is also seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes from RUSAL.
Labour unions at the 640,000 tonnes a year capacity refinery have been embroiled in a wage dispute with RUSAL over several years, leading to numerous strikes and shutdowns, and the plant is not operating at full capacity.
"We have asked the government to cancel the contract considering the current situation prevailing at Friguia," Amadou Diallo, CNTG's secretary general, told Reuters on Thursday.
"This is a collective demand from all the unions and they are all backing this memorandum," he said.
RUSAL executives in Guinea could not immediately be reached for comment.
Workers went on strike in April at the plant, the only refinery in the world's No. 1 exporter of the ore bauxite from which alumina is made, to demand a minimum wage of $400 per month and the payment of employees' medical costs.
Diallo said that even though workers suspended their walkout and returned to work on April 28, full production had not yet restarted.
RUSAL paid $19 million in 2006 for the refinery, a price the current government has said is too low. The government of the West African country is also seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes from RUSAL.
Labour unions at the 640,000 tonnes a year capacity refinery have been embroiled in a wage dispute with RUSAL over several years, leading to numerous strikes and shutdowns, and the plant is not operating at full capacity.
"We have asked the government to cancel the contract considering the current situation prevailing at Friguia," Amadou Diallo, CNTG's secretary general, told Reuters on Thursday.
"This is a collective demand from all the unions and they are all backing this memorandum," he said.
RUSAL executives in Guinea could not immediately be reached for comment.
Workers went on strike in April at the plant, the only refinery in the world's No. 1 exporter of the ore bauxite from which alumina is made, to demand a minimum wage of $400 per month and the payment of employees' medical costs.
Diallo said that even though workers suspended their walkout and returned to work on April 28, full production had not yet restarted.
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