We, the International Articulation for those Affected by Vale (AIAAV), have performed critical activism, participating in both the ordinary and extraordinary shareholders meetings of Vale S.A. for the past 12 years. We have written this public letter to announce our non- participation in this year’s shareholder meetings, which were held on April 29, 2022.
Our absence is a form of protest to denounce the systematic human rights and environmental violations practiced by Vale. Every year, during the shareholder meetings, we have presented our claims during the meetings, insisting upon an official response by Vale as well as changes in their positions and corporate decisions. The company, however, continues without responding satisfactorily to these questions and without altering in any way its criminal form of operation.
For more than a decade, we have denounced the fact that Vale S.A’s board of directors has failed to include in its reports and other institutional documents important information about its operations.The information omitted is directly related to the socio-environmental risks of these projects as well as important aspects of Vale’s choices in terms of production processes.The company continues to use processes and technologies that reduce production costs at the expense of the environment, the exhaustive exploitation of its workers and the illnesses caused in the neighboring communities where their projects are carried out.The lack of transparency in the company’s documents manifests in several ways, either by omitting important information about the impacts of its business, or by building a “creative narrative” to explain other facts.
Thus, this year, we will put forth our criticism of the company directly to society, amplifying outside the shareholder meeting, as we have previously done, the voices of those who directly and daily suffer the burdens of the company’s performance. These are the voices that are made invisible in the polished documents and comments from administrators and directors.These are the voices of those who have to endure air and water pollution, noise, forced displacement, criminalization, the loss of their territories and environmental degradation. These are the voices of those hit by ore trains, of those who fight for reparations and the memory of those killed by the mud of broken dams, and the workers victimized by the Covid-19 virus. Ultimately, these are the workers who produce and enrich the company and, in the end, receive none of the benefits.
As for Vale and its shareholders, on the other hand, today they can celebrate the R$ 121 billion in profits. The workers, however, will not be able to reap any benefit from its distribution.
