5 April, 2010
Peruvian mineworkers at the US-owned Doe Run mine operations at Cobriza have settled a strike dispute by accepting a deal that gives all workers at the copper mine a one-time productivity bonus of 3,500 soles (US$1,232). The bonus will be paid to workers in two installments; the first 1,500 soles will be paid on 9 April, with the remainder paid on 20 August.
The work stoppage was started on 23 March by the ICEM-affiliated National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (FNTMMSP), the country’s largest mining union federation. FNTMMSP General Secretary Luis Castillo has personally led the negotiations for the miners of Doe Run. Castillo argued that the collective agreement had not been fulfilled by management a year into the five-year agreement in 2008.
FNTMMSP General Secretary, Luis Castillo Carlos
It took a strike by the 890 workers at Doe Run’s Cobriza copper mine to bring management to the bargaining table. Company officials immediately began tripartite negotiations with FNTMMSP and the Labour Ministry, following a two-day stoppage that initially started on 28 February.
As repeatedly reported recently by ICEM, the Peruvian Ministry of Labour typically sides with the company and declares mineworkers’ strikes “inadmissible,” moving trade unions to respond with short, rolling strikes to avoid losing their jobs.
Production at the Cobriza copper mine in the Huancavelica Province affects operations at Doe Run Perú’s polymetallic smelter in La Oroya, in Junín Province. The Cobriza mine produces around 30% of the copper concentrates processed by the smelter, which has been operating sporadically since creditors halted their support in March 2009. Doe Run Perú, a unit of the US-based Renco Group, has been hard hit by the recession. Cobriza was Peru's sixth largest copper mine last year, producing 18,519 metric tonnes.
Elsewhere in Peru, 1,500 workers at the Marcona mine, owned by China's Shougang state steel company, went on strike on 29 March, seeking better wages and conditions. "The strike is total and of indefinite length," said Julio Ortiz of FNTMMSP. "The factory has already cut salaries and has proposed a ridiculously low offer after already having cut workers' pay by 8% across the board.”
The mine, located in the city of Marcona, 350 kilometers south of Lima, has a history of poor industrial relations. ICEM sided with Shougang workers’ and backed their strikes last July and September, also in protest to low wages and poor labour conditions. Shougang Hierro Peru SAA is Peru's only iron producer. Iron production at Shougang, reached 4.4 million tons in 2009.
A national strike in Peru’s mining sector involving 50,000 unionized workers at 18 mines is taking shape for 30 June 30. The FNTMMSP took that decision on 27 March during the union's annual meeting.
The FNTMMSP is demanding that Peru's government implement two laws. A pension law, which was approved by Peru’s Congress on 27 October 2009, has yet to be implemented, and a second law, which increases profit-sharing at mining companies, also has not gone into effect.