15 February, 2007
Señor Alvaro Uribe Vélez
Presidente de la República
Palacio Nariño
Carrera 8 No. 7-26
Bogotá
By Fax: ++57-1-337.58.90 and ++57-1-566.20.71
Brussels, 15 February 2007
Mr. President,
We are writing to you in the aftermath of two recent coal mine disasters in Colombia which saw, in total, the death of almost 40 people.
As you know, the first catastrophe, the worst of its kind in Colombia in 30 years, took place on 3 February, in the San Roque and La Preciosa Mines in Sardinata, Norte de Santander department. Thirty-two miners lost their lives in this tragedy. You visited the mine site after the explosion.
Although you stated a full investigation would occur, you said nothing publicly about the underlying safety and other problems plaguing Colombia’s mining industry.
A short two days after your visit, another tragedy struck a mine in Gámeza, Boyacá department. There, 8 people lost their lives, including a 13-year-old boy who was working inside a shaft mining coal. The mine in Gámeza was operating illegally.
At a time of high demand for coal, with the market situation pushing prices to near record highs, the 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the 168-million-member International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) are deeply concerned about the inadequate or non-existent safety measures that were behind these accidents.
In this context, we condemn your government’s policy to weaken the role of the state in the monitoring and verifying process of working conditions in the mines. Through our affiliates, we have been informed of a resulting decline in both the quantity and the quality of labour inspections. This is especially worrisome given that Colombia has ratified ILO Convention No. 81 on Labour Inspections.
We further understand that, with the exception of the major mining companies of the world, which operate vast mineral export businesses in your country, the level of technical and other modern safety devices is totally inadequate in most Colombian underground mines, including in the many illegal ones.
We believe that your government bears much responsibility for this, since safety failures in the mining industry are a result of structural problems that need governmental attention.
We urge your government to assume its direct decision-making role in this regard. We note that Colombia has ratified International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 174, the Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents Convention. But we also note that Colombia has ratified neither ILO Convention No. 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, nor Convention No. 155, the Occupational Safety and Health Convention.
We therefore call on the government of Colombia to start the process toward ratification of Convention Nos. 155 and 176 at once. And we urge you, as leader of the growing industrial economy that Colombia has become, to spearhead this effort.
In closing, we state that the right to a safe and secure working environment is an inherent right for all workers. It is the responsibility of governments to assure that right. We look forward to your comments on this important issue.
Yours sincerely,
Manfred Warda
ICEM General Secretary
Guy Ryder
ITUC General Secretary
Cc: Embassy of Colombia in Brussels
International Labour Organisation
International Council on Mining & Metals