WEST Indies Alumina Company (Windalco) workers are concerned that they could be plunged into uncertainty again due to new sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs.

Windalco’s parent company United Company RUSAL is domiciled in Moscow, Russia, and is founded and led by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska, which is worth about US$4 billion according to Forbes, was one of the first Russian oligarchs to call for peace and an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

President of the Union of Clerical Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE), Vincent Morrison, told the Jamaica Observer “the workers are naturally concerned, they have been through this before, the last time we went to the US embassy and based on the discussions we had it was lifted. We haven’t yet contacted the embassy because we’re waiting to hear from the management to hear what the modus operandi is in terms of going forward.”

Morrison further told the Business Observer that he is hoping to meet with the management of Windalco on Tuesday, March 1, 2022.

Windalco employs about 1,200 workers and UCASE represents over 800 of the employees at the company.

“Not only the bauxite and alumina workers, we represent workers who are also engaged with the dairy operation and you know they are one of the biggest dairy farmers in Jamaica,” the trade unionist added.

But this isn’t the first time the Windalco workers have been caught in a tussle between the US and Russia.

On April 6, 2018 the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), via General Licence No 14, imposed various sanctions on Deripaska and several companies that were wholly or primarily owned by him.

The sanctions resulted in the assets of UC Rusal that were within the US jurisdiction being frozen and US persons being prohibited from having dealings with them. Non-US persons also faced secondary sanctions for knowingly facilitating significant transactions for, or on behalf of Deripaska and with his companies.

But the company is hoping that this round of sanctions will have less of an impact on its operations since it has now diversified its shareholdings.

In 2018 Mining Minister Robert Montague assured the island that independent persons will control a significant bloc of the shares of the En+ Group, which is UC Rusal’s parent company. Thereby reducing Deripaska’s direct involvement with UC Rusal Alumina Jamaica Limited or Windalco.

But as tensions heighten the local alumina industry is becoming more jittery that the ripple effects of sanctions could be crippling for the industry.

There are also concerns that outstanding investment commitments could be jeopardised. For example; In January Windalco announced plans to invest $620 million in the construction of a second effluent holding pond (EHP) facility to prevent the risk of any spillages to the environment.

When quizzed about the likely economic fallout, director general at the Planning Institute of Jamaica, Dr Wayne Henry, said his team of experts are still analysing the situation as it continues to unfold.

Dr Henry said “generally we can expect inflationary impact because Russia is a commodity producer. So, what you’ll see there wouldn’t change until we know a little more about those sanctions. Russia would have reduced ownership in Windalco but we don’t know. When they say they are targeting some of the oligarchs in terms of the sanction regime, would it be applied to any business that they have interest in or own or those which they have a controlling interest in? We don’t know so we can’t say too much more at this time.”

The Business Observer contacted Windalco’s corporate communications manager Monique Grange, but was told that the company has “No comment at this time” and cannot say when the company would be speaking on the issue.

In the meantime, Morrison stressed that “we hear from the workers every day, the problem is that we have not yet heard from the management and we can’t say anything definitive until we hear from the management for them to say exactly what is what.”