29 August, 2011
In the midst of national unrest facing Chile President Sebastián Piñera, Mineworkers’ Federations meet together today in Iquique to push forward support for 1,500 union members of Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi, a major affiliate of Chile Federation of Miners (FMC), the trade union covering miners and workers employed by the world’s major mining houses.
The Mineworkers’ Union of Collahuasi and FMC have set 2 September as a 24-hour day for industrial action, mainly in protest to the company sacking six workers during the last 24-hour strike, on 29-30 July. The union’s planned strike is also in protest to the miners’ employer, Doña Ines de Collahuasi, reneging on collective agreement conventions put in place in the past.
A delegation from Federación de Trabajadores del Cobre (FTC), the Mineworkers’ Federation representing state-run copper company Codelco’s staff, will likely participate in today’s meeting.
Doña Ines de Collahuasi, the world’s third largest copper mine, is jointly owned through 44% stakes each by AngloAmerican and Xstrata. The 29-30 July strike at Collahuasi was also done in support of a strike at another FMC major branch, Sindicato No. 1 de Trabajadores de Minera Escondida. Then, 2,375 miners where in a middle of a 15-day strike at Minera Escondida, the world’s largest copper producer, owned by BHP Billion (57%) and Rio Tinto (23%).
In the past few weeks, FMC President Cristián Arancibia has visited several mines where workers are represented by FMC branches and urged support for Collahuasi miners as the global copper enterprise ramps up for even more production.
Today’s meeting comes on the heels of a prior successful FMC-FTC solidarity meeting in Antofagasta – on 28 July – just prior to Collahuasi miners joining Escondida miners in a symbolic day-long shutdown of 10% of the world’s copper supply. Another coordinating meeting between the Collahuasi mineworkers’ branch and the Escondida branch on 20 August produced official support from the Escondida union. And the Cobres have met amongst themselves to discuss ways to support the FMC Collahuasi miners, as well as narrowing issues in which to engage Codelco on.
Dialogue has occurred between mine management at Collahuasi and Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi, reports FMC branch President Manuel Muñoz, but that dialogue is undermined by supervisors intentionally giving workers mis-information. Relations between Doña Ines de Collahuasi and mineworkers have been frayed for over a year and the two sides were pitted in a bitter 33-day strike late last year that still is being felt.
In a 24 August letter to the company, Muñoz said that the company’s Human Resource facilities have failed and the company is vulnerable to workers and supervisors leaving Collahuasi for other employment. He alluded to common misunderstandings that could get resolved in honest negotiations, but instead have become serious confrontations.
Meanwhile, Codelco recognised that popular Chilean unrest in both mining and the general society is not good for the country’s business climate. Last week, the company and the Cobres signed a framework agreement intended to remove communication barriers between labour and management. The agreement sets the conditions under which workers’ opinions are fostered for shaping the future direction of the company.
FTC President Raimundo Espinoza said the framework agreement gives FTC stature to help develop Codelco’s divisions “including an analysis of the current and future workforce and compliance with the law for contract workers.” The framework agreement results from a one-day strike on 11 July at Codelco mines over privatisation threats.