9 August, 2010
A deadly accident killed four maintenance workers at the Carbones del Cerrejón mine complex in La Guajira department, north-eastern Colombia, on Wednesday, 4 August. The ICEM affiliated trade union at the mine, Sintracarbón, represents 3,500 direct employed workers, and has been fighting to organise many of the 4,000 outsourced at Cerrejón, Latin America’s largest coal mine.
As prior ICEM reports indicated, organising efforts were countered with harassment and persecution by contractors, while Carbones del Cerrejón management refused to intervene.
This latest fatal accident underlines the urgent need for free trade unions among all the contractors of Cerrejón in order to end unsafe working conditions. Carbones del Cerrejón, and its owners Xstrata, AngloAmerican, and BHP Billiton, cannot continue to turn a blind eye to anti-union contractors.
Wednesday’s accident occurred at 19h50, when a high platform holding 16 workers collapsed and fell. Contract employees of Conconcreto and Ticom were carrying out repair work in one of two coal storage silos in the massive facility’s crushing plant.
Three workers died at the scene. While 12 of the 16 were injured and taken to hospital, one died en-route. The bodies of the three dead workers could not be recovered until late into the night.
Seven of the hospitalized workers have since been discharged, and the others are all in stable condition.
Sintracarbón, as well as communicating shock and sadness, moved quickly to demand a full inquiry into the accident, with a view to fully understanding its causes, and establishing a strict safety policy throughout the Cerrejón operations. The company has responded, with external investigators due to release findings in two weeks.
Production at Cerrejón reached 30.5 million tonnes in 2009, and is expected to reach 40 million tonnes by 2011.