22 March, 2010
The ICEM reported on 22 February in InBrief No. 150 that the affiliated mining union the National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (FNTMMSP), the country’s largest mining union federation, has taken strike action at three mines of the precious metal producer Buenaventura. Peruvian law stipulates that companies must share a minimum of 8% of its profits with workers. The union claims Buenaventura are hiding financial information of the period 2006-2009 in order to avoid profit payments to the 4,000 workers during a global price boom.
With the Peruvian Ministry of Labour siding with the company, and announcing the strike illegal, workers were forced back to work to avoid losing their jobs. This decision by the government has led FNTMMSP to go on short, rolling strikes. Workers will again down tools this Friday, 26 March, at the Antapite gold mine, and the next day at the Uchucchacua silver and Orcopampa gold mines of Buenaventura.
A FNTMMSP local leader at the Orcopampa mine stated that the demands of the strikers include improvements in working conditions, and the rehiring of a miner fired during an earlier strike, as well as a larger share of profit-earning bonuses.
Buenaventura managers have so far refused to negotiate, with Buenaventura CEO Carlos Gálvez stating that only shareholders have the power to increase workers’ wages. He said management is powerless to avoid the rolling strikes.
Uchucchacua is located in Lima's Oyón province, Orcopampa in Arequipa region, and Antapite in Huancavelica region. Buenaventura operates four other mines and has a controlling interest in mining companies Cedimin and El Brocal. El Brocal workers went on a separate strike 13 March in response to management failing to pay agreed pay raises.
Elsewhere in the Peruvian mining industry, 630 workers at Doe Run’s Cobriza copper mine have ended a strike after one day, as company officials immediately began tripartite negotiations with FNTMMSP and the Labour Ministry.
FNTMMSP General Secretary, Luis Castillo Carlos
FNTMMSP General Secretary Luis Castillo has led the negotiations for the mineworkers of Doe Run. Castillo argues that the collective agreement has not been fulfilled by management, whereas it has been by workers, a year after it was signed.
Doe Run Peru has been hard hit by the financial downturn. The operation, which is a unit of the US-based Renco Group, had its credit line cut six months ago.
The company was expelled from the country’s National Association of Mining and Energy for not completing a government-mandated clean-up at the metals processing complex in the central Peruvian city of La Oroya, which environmental organizations say is one of the world’s most polluted places.
Earlier this month, Doe Run Peru signed a letter of intent with Swiss mining multinational Glencore. If the agreement on a sale goes through, Glencore will provide Doe Run with a credit of some US$100 million, and will also finance the environmental clean-up demanded by government.
The Peruvian mining industry’s US$16.36 billion in foreign sales last year amounted to nearly 61% of the Andean nation’s total exports.