Striking miners launch "Dirty Diamonds" campaign

Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada Saturday, July 31, 2010

While the recent industry initiative to boost and maintain consumer confidence in diamonds focuses on the issue of conflict diamonds in Africa, there's trouble brewing to the North.

Striking miners at the Ekati diamond mine, owned by BHP Billiton, announced a campaign against the company with major ads in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, according to a media release from Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which is sponsoring the ads.

PSAC has asked consumers to stop buying Ekati diamonds produced behind the picket lines under the Aurias and CanadaMark trademarks while the union works to win a collective agreement for about 400 employees who have been on strike since early April.

"We will be telling readers of the The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal that they should not buy Canada's own conflict diamonds-diamonds being produced despite a labor conflict," said Jean-Francois Des Lauriers, PSAC executive vice-president, North, in the press statement.

He said—and the advertisement asserts—that BHP Billiton has marketed the diamonds as "conflict-free" compared to those produced in war-torn African nations, but that consumers are unaware of the Ekati strike and what he said is the company's failure to negotiate a fair contract.

"We believe consumers who care about human rights and fair treatment of workers anywhere in the world will not want to purchase Ekati Diamonds until workers there have a fair collective agreement," Des Lauriers said.

BHP Billiton could not be immediately reached for comment.

The ads can be seen online at psacnorth.com.

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