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AlliantACTION Update: Canadian Government denies sale to Alliant Techsystems
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by Pepperwolf, W A M M
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MDA employees on a Wednesday. |
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Beginning in mid-January, over 40 Canadian MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) employees began wearing black T-shirts with white peace signs on Wednesdays, in solidarity with the weekly AlliantACTION vigilers outside Alliant Techsystems (ATK) headquarters in Edina, Minnesota.
Alliant Techsystems, the largest Minnesota based weapons contractor, had offered 1.3 billion dollars to purchase the space division of MDA, a Canadian based company, on January 6.. The weekly vigil inspired two engineers from MDA to publicly quit their jobs, which sparked intense media scrutiny over the purchase.
On April 10th the conservative Canadian government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper rejected the offer on the basis of no “net benefit” to Canada. The purchase would have included the technically advanced satellite RADARSAT-2, and the technology used to develop it. MDA is considered Canada’s premier space company and also developed the robotic arm Canadarm used on the space shuttle. This technology would also have become Alliant’s. ATK has 30 days to appeal this decision.
It is not surprising that Canada, a country that orchestrated the Ban Land Mines Treaty, would reject a sale to a company that at one time was the largest producer of land mines.
One MDA employee was told wearing the peace shirt was no big deal because “. . . workers do that every Wednesday at corporate headquarters in Minnesota. . .”
Links to news articles about this potential take-over can be found at AlliantACTION.org. |
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© 2008 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete May 2008 Index - click here
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