6 June, 2011
Some 10,000 workers employed at El Teniente by sub-contractors of Codelco, Chile’s state-run copper and molybdenum miner, have been on strike now for 13 days. Even though the walkout falls outside Chile’s labour law, the strike is legitimate: contract employees demand that Codelco engage their unions in direct dialogue.
The strike started 25 May against over 20 contracting firms and Codelco. It is happening at El Teniente, one of five Codelco divisions, which is the world’s largest underground copper mine located 90 kilometres south of Santiago. Contract workers at cleaning, catering, supply and other firms want a primary employer to come to the table to address failed bonus schemes, unpaid hours, no job security and other grievances. They also demand that there be no recriminations over strike actions, a clear sign of the fear, precariousness, and trade union discrimination at El Teniente.
Codelco is standing by the “acuerdo marco,” or framework agreement of 2007 in maintaining it has no obligation to address grievances of contract workers. Codelco CEO Diego Hernández said the company’s legal responsibility ends at health and safety compliance, and social security compliance of the sub-contracting firms. Unions representing contract workers want a re-write of the marco agreement.
Contract Workers Strike at El Teniente
The job actions have gained the support of civic officials and political leaders in the region and the ICEM commends contract workers at El Teniente for taking direct action in an effort to get a primary company to address its concerns.
The three branches of the Federación de Trabajadores del Cobre (FTC) at El Teniente, representing 2,300 direct Codelco workers, issued a statement on 30 May, in part, stating that the Cobres federation “has always maintained a stance of solidarity with the legitimate aspirations of the employees of sub-contractors. The FTC has been a key player to open talks between unions representing workers, contractors themselves, and the client company Codelco, in order to see positive agreements.
“The FTC expresses its solidarity with the contract workers and their representative trade union organizations, and we clearly do not support the manipulation and exploitation of a legitimate movement to promote interests other than that of workers.”
The dispute was peaceful during the first nine days of the strike, but turned unruly on Friday, 3 June, when contract workers blocked roads leading to the mine complex. The blockade caused buses carrying regular workers to be turned away.
Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, saw its first quarter pre-tax profit balloon to US$2.31 billion due to high copper and molybdenum prices. That is an 87% increase over the same period in 2010 and is partially due to the state company’s sell-off of its 40% share of electrical producer Edelnor.
Separately, the Federación de Sindicatos de Supervisores y Profesionales Rol A Codelco (FESUC), the supervisory and professional union federation at Codelco, charged that senior managers are transforming the company solely for the purpose of privatisation. This comes at a time when supervisors at some divisions are being furloughed without the option to transfer.
FESUC President Ricardo Calderón said layoffs, precarious employment, and outsourcing are the precursor for privatization, while another FESUC leader called on CEO Hernández to publicly state the company would not be sold off to private investors.