Vale Contends for Leadership for Award for Worst Company in the World. VOTE NOW!

One of the largest Brazilian transnational’s, the mining company Vale, present in 38 countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia, is able to vale minereceive, at the end of January, one of the leading international awards of corporate shame. Chosen from among dozens of candidates, Vale is among the six finalists for the 2012 Public Eye Award, which annually bestows the title of world's worst company to a corporation, elected in an international contest by popular vote during the World Economic Forum in the Swiss city of Davos. The fifth vote in the first week of the prize, launched on January 5, Vale took the lead for the first time on the afternoon of Friday (January 20, 2012).

According to the organizers of the competition - NGOs Berne Declaration and Greenpeace Switzerland - the finalists are chosen depending on the severity of social, environmental and labor problems and impacts from its activities. Further, Vale will compete this year with Japan's TEPCO, the energy sector company responsible for the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the British bank Barklays, the banking complex involved in world speculation on food prices, the American company Freeport McMoran, mining company with disastrous operations in Papua, New Guinea, South Korea's Samsung, a multinational company accused of exposing their workers to highly toxic substances, and the Swiss company Syngenta, a producer of pesticides banned in many countries and responsible for the contamination of hundreds of crops with transgenic crops.

The rapid rise in the race for fifth in the race for leadership of the Public Eye is due, according to Rede Justiça nos Trilhos [Network for Rail Justice], an organization that recommended the company for the award, there are two factors in particular: on the one hand, the world-wide impacts of Vale, which led to the creation of an International Network of People Affected by Vale - with great power to mobilize and vote - and, secondly, the company's entry in the North Energy Consortium, responsible for the construction of the Belo Monte Dam in 2010. [See: http://www.justicanostrilhos.org/nota/882]

"The negative image of Belo Monte in Brazil and abroad was a deciding factor in choosing Vale for the Public Eye, even as it entered the Consortium of the hydroelectric plant as a kind of private savior and the largest shareholder, with 9% of the shares, after that the vast majority of other companies have abandoned this punctured boat, "said Brent Millikan, coordinator of the NGO International Rivers, a partner in the indictment of Vale.

vlse chartImpacts

In conjunction with the Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre [Xingu Forever Alive Movement], the main opponent of the Belo Monte in Para, in the Rede Justiça nos Trilhos, based in Maranhão, released a list of the impacts of mining in Brazil and worldwide (available at http:// hotsite xinguvivo.org.br / votevale /). Among the worst problems caused by the company, highlighted by Rede Justiça nos Trilhos, the impacts are caused by the Carajás Railroad, which crosses 25 municipalities and impacts 94 communities of Maranhão and Pará "According to data from the National Land Transportation Agency (ANTT), from 2008, we estimate that the trains run over the valley and kill on average one person per month. In 2007, for example, 23 deaths were recorded. In 2008, nine were killed and 2,860 victims of accidents, "explains Danilo Chammas, a lawyer for the organization.

On Wednesday (January 18, 2012), Chammas, who lives in Açailândia, Maranhão, left early to Buriticupu, a city 200 km from there, to file another action for compensation for hit and run. "The train Vale killed Mr. Amario and left the Mrs. Antonia a helpless widow. Mrs. Antonia already has her 60 years, has suffered a long life, been sick, her house has fallen ... she lives in one of the more than 90 towns that border the railroad. To get there, only by dirt road, is quite complicated, especially in this rainy season. Tomorrow she takes this tortuous route, we'll meet in the same city and we'll see how to forward the request for compensation for the death of her husband, "says the lawyer.

Besides the deaths and accidents, including the impacts of rail vibrations and cracks in houses, families of compulsory removal or appropriation of a portion of their lots by Vale, prohibiting the holding of fields near the railroad, noise pollution, damage to local roads caused by large vehicles, the arrival of a large number of male workers, putting at risk adolescents in situations of social vulnerability, and others.

According Chammas, these problems tend to worsen with the new project doubling the railway, in progress. According to the project presented to IBAMA [Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources], Vale provides for the removal, along the railroad in 1168 "points of interference," such as fences, houses, gardens, crops and entire villages. On Thursday (January 19, 2012), affected residents and representatives of social movements staged a demonstration paralyzing the works. The occupied country road was released in the late afternoon yesterday [January 19, 2012].

Rede Justiça nos Trilhos has formally denounced the illegality of the process of licensing work, which has come to be blocked by the courts in one of its pieces in Ação Civil Pública filed by federal prosecutors in defending the rights of impacted quilombo communities. [Note: Ação Civil Pública is a procedural tool provided in the Brazilian Federal Constitution and laws, that may benefit the prosecution and other entities entitled to the defense of interests, collective and individual.]

"We still have a multitude of other impacts, environmental, social and labor in our list of complaints. In Canada, for example, where the mining company Vale bought Inco, workers staged a record strike of 18 months according to the requirement of Vale that workers give up rights historically won by the struggle of several generations. In Mozambique, 700 families last week blocked the railway line and stopped the flow of coal from the mine in Moatize of Vale, in protest against the lack of dialogue and broken promises during the forced removals that have suffered since 2009, by the initiative the company," says Chammas.

Earlier this week, Rede Justiça nos Trilhos and the Movimento Xingu Vivo reinforced the campaign by voting for Vale, which voting runs until January 26, when it will be announced the winner of the 2012 Public Eye Award. "For thousands of people who suffer from the excesses of this Brazilian multinational, who have been displaced, lost their homes and lands, friends and relatives who had died, who suffered political persecution, which were threatened by thugs and gunmen, who fell ill, had children exploited,  have been laid off, suffer from poor working conditions and remuneration, and other impacts, give Vale the title of worst corporation in the world is much more than winning a prize. It is a chance to expose the eyes of the world their sufferings and bring hundreds of new actors and forces to fight for their rights and against the crimes committed by the company," says the notice of the entities.

Vale

Seeking a written response, Vale said it would not decide on the contest. In a note sent to the organizers of Public Eye, however, the vale mine 2company said that "it is with regret that we are placed in the position of having to refute serious allegations without foundation against us." Claiming commitment to social and environmental issues, the mining company also said that in relation to Belo Monte, "our presence in the project gives us the unique opportunity to implement the same focus, commitment to excellence that we apply in our operations and projects around the world.”