By Balford Henry, News EditorTHE WEST Indies Alumina Company (WINDALCO, formerly Alcan Jamaica Co.) said yesterday that it will be divesting its mining operations at Kirkvine, Manchester.
In a statement, it said it has been in discussions with prospective contractors for close to a year. "West Indies Alumina Company is currently in the process of finalising an agreement with Henry Walker Eltin (HWE) to operate its Kirkvine Mines to improve efficiency," the statement said.
WINDALCO said the move would affect several permanent employees. "These activities are currently being manned by just under 50 regular WINDALCO employees and most of these employees would be made redundant. WINDALCO has a redundancy formula in place which it has used in recent redundancies and which will remain in place."
HWE is conducting interviews to fill positions necessary to conduct mining operations and among those being interviewed are WINDALCO employees.
Earlier this week Norman DaCosta, a National Workers' Union vice-president, said the positions of 87 workers at the company's Kirkvine location would be made redundant at the end of the month, consequent on WINDALCO's decision to outsource its mining operations to HWE, starting October 1, 2002.
Mr. DaCosta claimed that HWE would be contracted to mine roughly 2.5 million tonnes of bauxite annually, to feed the Kirkvine alumina refinery and that the objective was to reduce mining costs by an average US$1 per tonne and to ensure reliability.
WINDALCO did not respond to the NWU's claim about reducing mining costs by an average US$1 per tonne, nor to claims that HWE would be bringing in new state-of-the-art mobile equipment required to strip top soil, mine and haul the ore, as well as operate and maintain the bauxite cable belt and reclaim mined-out pits.
The NWU has proposed an enhanced redundancy package of six weeks' pay per year for each year of service for the workers to be made redundant, as well as the setting up of an Enterprise Support Scheme funded by WINDALCO and designed to assist the displaced workers who may want to start new businesses.
