Corporate Social Responsibility

Anthropologist Elizabeth Ferry reviews what took place during a recent strike at the El Cubo mine owned by Canada's AuRico Gold (formerly named Gammon Gold) near Guanajuato, Mexico. While the strike has now been resolved and most of the workers are back at work, the strike raised important issues about labour relations between Canadian mining companies and workers and surrounding communities.

News release: MiningWatch Canada, Common Frontiers, the United Steelworkers (USW), and Council of Canadians welcome news of an RCMP raid on the Calgary office of Blackfire Exploration, the privately-held company whose barite mine in Chiapas, Mexico has been in the news since the November 2009 murder of anti-mining activist Mariano Abarca.

Argentine Federal Prosecutor Gustavo Gómez describes what he calls the cycle of corruption (círculo cerrado): companies are allowed to operate without adequate regard for the environment and subsequently use their enormous profits to ensure ever-increasing impunity. Mr. Gómez firmly believes that his office is best employed in prosecuting company directors as the intellectual authors of environmental crimes – feasible under Argentinean law, but difficult to do even under relatively progressive governments.

A number of Argentinean universities have refused to accept donations from mining companies and Argentine Federal Prosecutor Gustavo Gómez calls on Canadian institutions to carefully look at company practices when considering offers of this type of funding.