Alcoa Implicated in Brazilian Worker's Death

A security guard employed by a contractor of the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) shot and killed one construction worker and injured another at the site of an Alcoa smelter under construction in Sao Luis, Brazil on January 8, according to local newspaper reports and eyewitness accounts.

Alcoa denies the reports. "According to my information, there were no wounded, no injured or anything like that," Dan Hillen, international public relations manager for Alcoa, told Multinational Monitor on May 7. "One of the guards got nervous and shot into the air... I've been assured the guard in question was reprimanded," Hillen said.

According to 'Sao Luis newspapers, a group of workers had gathered outside the Alcoa office on the smelter site to protest the non-payment of overtime wages.

"The meeting ended in violence," reported the newspaper Jornal de Hoje. "One worker was killed and the other wounded" when "a guard, known as Kojak, shot at the two workers," the paper stated.

Alcoa's Hillen acknowledged that a worker "appeared with a cut in his right arm" and "claimed" to have been grazed by a bullet, but said "there are other opinions" about what caused his injury.

Antonio Jose Silva, the injured man, spoke at a meeting of community organizations and religious workers in Sao Luis about a week after the incident. According to a representative of a local citizens' association who attended the meeting, Silva's account of what happened was as follows: As the pay dispute became heated, one worker bent down to pick up a rock. His action apparently frightened the security guard, who reached for his gun and shot, killing the worker and grazing Silva's arm and side.

According to Silva's story and to local newspaper accounts, Alcoa guards took the body away and refused to answer inquiries from Alcoa employees, religious workers or even local authorities. as to the whereabouts or the identity of the body. "At about 2:00 (that afternoon), the military police were prevented by Alcoa management from entering the area to investigate the facts," the newspaper Jornal Pequeno reported.

"Alcoa's violence and corruption have no limits," state representative Haroldo Saboia was quoted in the Jornal Pequeno as commenting. "Now a worker has been killed while claiming his just right, that is, the payment of his salary. We demand an investigation of this crime and the punishment of those responsible." Multinational Monitor was unable to learn whether an investigation is proceeding.

Sao Luis, a city of 400,000 people, is the capital of the Brazilian state of Maranhao. Alcoa's plans to build a $1.3 billion aluminum smelter there have caused controversy on legal and environmental grounds. According to local organizers, more than 10,000 people will have to leave their land if the project is completed as planned; about 2,000 have been displaced since construction began last fall.