The principal shareholder of the nickel mine and Ambatovy’s cobalt, on the east coast of Madagascar, is the Canadian group Sheritt. The latter has just officially announced the end of the strike that lasted nearly 10 days without giving details. In fact, this concerned a portion of its employees at the Ambatovy plant near the province of Toamasina. Sheritt International Corporation was delighted to announce the news as soon as the strikers stopped their protest.
The reasons for the strike
The strikers complained about a number of violations of labor law. At the same time, they asked the company to dismiss the human resources director. To respond to these striking employees, an investigation was opened in order to build trust between management and the plant workers. A committee is in charge of this matter, composed of government representatives. The HR director has remained in his position for the moment, but the committee will work for three months to substantiate the case against this executive.
It turns out that one of their colleagues died in hospital after not being evacuated in time by ambulance in early March. Following this incident, the miners had already gone on strike during the two weeks that followed. Note that the plant employs 8,000 people, of whom 3,000 are direct employees.