Colombia’s Coal Industry Hit with Two Strikes

Two strikes in the Colombian coal mining sector broke out recently, giving 3,000 miners of unaffiliated Sintramienergética a loud voice to express disapproval over working conditions in this resource-rich sector of the South American country.

A strike by 1,000 miners broke out at Swiss-owned Glencore International’s Carbones La Jagua operations in Jagua de Ibirico, Cesar state, on 17 May, and one numbering 2,000 miners started on 22 May at US-based Drummond Coal’s LaLoma mines in Cesar, and spread to the company’s transport and export terminal operations in Cienaga and Santa Marta.

The Drummond strike centers on subcontractors. The privately-held US company refuses to extend collective bargaining rights to thousands of contract workers, mostly at the transport and terminal sites. Sintramienergética is insisting for these jobs to be made permanent, with full social rights as well as the necessary health care benefits both on and off the job.

Wages are also a major issue with both companies, since coal’s high prices and the rich value of Colombian’s high-grade resource in America and Europe has left miners short-changed. Miners’ demands also include significant investment, particularly by Glencore, on environmental projects, and for both companies to begin providing medical assistance to communities that have been adversely affected by the mining enterprises.

Columbia’s national labour center, Central Unitaria de Trabajores (CUT), has warned that company security units have made the strike scenes extremely volatile, and has called for constructive dialogue from both the national government and the two companies. CUT, saying the two strikes are lawful, said the companies refused to find solutions to the union’s demands over the past two months, and that the demands have the overwhelming support of the miners.

Glencore recently sold its 33% share in another rich coal mining and export operation in eastern Colombia, Carbones del Cerrejón, to Xstrata, a global mining house in which Glencore owns a 15% stake.