14 March, 2011
The mineworkers of Collahuasi, Chile, won a heroic strike dispute in November, December 2010, against the third largest copper miner. Now local management is taking legal action in an attempt to crush the union. The 32-day strike was the longest ever in Chile’s private copper sector.
Settlement, accepted by a 521-398 vote on 6 December, gave 1,551 miners a 16.3% wage increase and a bonus of US$25,160, as well as other advances in housing, education, and health. Union President Manuel Muñoz said at the time that the contract’s outcome would increase monthly benefits by 120,000 pesos, or US$252 per month.
Collahuasi miners, during the strike
This price has clearly been deemed too expensive by management, whose courtroom attack of last week will make it very difficult for the current leadership of the union to continue effectively representing workers. The employer posted net profits in 2009 of US$1.56 billion.
The company’s criminal charge against union leaders Manuel Muñoz, Juan Barraza, Loncol Espinoza, Victor Cubillos, Cristian Arancibia, Carlos Rojas, and Jaqueline Cerda, argues that under articles 417 and 418 of Chile’s penal code, these trade unionists are guilty of libel against the company for statements made during last year’s dispute in the May Six Atipaña newspaper online and in print, and should all serve three years in prison.
The Collahuasi copper mine, in the Atacama Desert of Chile’s northern Region I, some 285 kilometres from the port city of Iquique, is jointly owned by multinationals Xtrata and AngloAmerica, each with a 44% stake. The remaining 12% is owned by Japan’s Mitsui.
The hypocrisy of the charges is highlighted by the strong smear campaign that the company conducted in the media during the conflict, and the illegal offers of bribes to workers to leave the union, both strategies clearly against the law.