31 January, 2011
A ten-day mission across three countries of South America by the ICEM President, General Secretary, and Regional Vice President covered much ground and different issues from Chile to Argentina to Brazil. The visits were made from 9-18 January.
In Chile, Senzeni Zokwana, Manfred Warda, and Latin America/Caribbean Contact Person Carol Bruce met with leaders of both ICEM affiliated and non-affiliated unions. The meeting with Chilean chemicals union affiliate, FENATRAPECH, was highly successful, and the ICEM met with different mineworkers’ federations on recent events and in particular ratification of ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention.
The ICEM leaders also met with Chile’s Minister of Labour Minister and Social Welfare, Camila Merino, who was sacked just days after the 11 January meeting by President Sebastián Piñera in a government shake-up. Despite Piñera’s late 2010 pledge to the world after the rescue of 33 miners at the San José copper mine late Chile would ratify Convention 176 “within 90 days,” Merino told the ICEM the country’s emphasis is on the more general ILO Convention 187, the Promotional Framework for Occupational Health and Safety Convention.
The ICEM reminded the now-ousted minister that on the global stage, Chile is firstly a resource-rich mining country.
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, the ICEM delegation met with Minister of Labour, Employment, and Social Security, Dr. Carlos Tomado, who was briefed to date on arrangements for ICEM’s Fifth Statutory Congress in Buenos Aires from 24-26 November 2011. He was also given information on ILO Convention 176, and he pledged his ministry’s support for ratification of the convention.
The ICEM also met on the afternoon of 14 January with General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko and leaders of the ICEM affiliate, Único de Trabajadores del Neumático Argentino (SUTNA), as well as with leaders of other Argentine unions.
Finally, the ICEM mission travelled to Rio de Janeiro to further ongoing talks with Brazilian state oil company Petrobrás on a Global Framework Agreement.