Capital Comes North: Exploring the Discursive Challenges to International Solidarity among Nickel Miners in Sudbury, Ontario

Abstract

This article draws on twenty-six qualitative interviews with rank-and-file United Steelworkersnickel miners in Sudbury, Ontario. It analyses some of the challenges to building internationalsolidarity at Brazilian-based multinational mining firm Vale. Engaging with labour geography andlabour movement renewal scholarship, the article explores how identity formation andinstitutional structures interact to shape workers’ understandings of their interests and capacities.In particular, it considers the impact of national identity as it arose in response to the issue offoreign ownership during the interviews. The findings suggest that attempts by the union todiscursively reframe workers’ struggle against their new multinational employer have yet to fullycontend with the persistence of spatially bound forms of working-class identity and interestsamong workers in the sample.KEYWORDS: international solidarity; discursive framing; spatial interests; national identity; nickel mining