SUDBURY - With the federal Liberals arriving in Sudbury for their annual caucus meeting, representatives of Sudbury's striking Steelworkers Local 6500 met with leader Michael Ignatieff to call on his party to join the other opposition parties in supporting Canadian workers.

In the meeting with Ignatieff, Leo Gerard, International President of United Steelworkers (USW), Wayne Fraser USW District Director and John Fera USW Local 6500 President, explained the desperate situation in Sudbury where the very profitable Brazilian multinational Vale Inco is attempting to destroy what workers and the community of Sudbury have built up over decades. The Steelworkers asked Ignatieff for help and commitment in four areas:

1. Make it clear that Vale should not be using scab labour nor trying to resume operations during a strike in Canada, and for the Liberals to commit to change their position and support anti-scab legislation;

2. Call on Vale to disclose its agreement of commitments, and for the Liberals to commit to full transparency of "net benefit to Canada" agreements, if they form government;

3. Call on Vale to get back to bargaining rather than attempting to resume limited production;

4. Call on the federal government to bring Vale to court for non- compliance of its "net benefit to Canada" agreement (as the government did in the case of U.S. Steel), and commit any Liberal government to reforming the Investment Canada Act to give it real teeth when a foreign company attempts to buy up Canadian resources and industries.

"We were glad to be given the time to outline our concerns to the Official Opposition. We will now wait to see if Michael Ignatieff and the federal Liberals join with the other opposition parties to really stand up for Canadian workers," said Fraser.

"If the Liberals are serious about standing up for Canada, they will speak out about what is happening here in Sudbury, where a massively profitable foreign multinational is attacking Canadian workers and our community's standard of living," said Fera.