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9 April, 2007
Workers, members of three of Peru’s mining and metals unions, struck the copper and lead smelting operations of Doe Run Company last week for three days. The strike and blockade of smelting operations in the city of La Oroya caused nearly a 70% production decline, which affected markets.
The 2,000 miners and metal workers took the job action to protest the company’s 2006 dividend pay awards. The workers took struck action from 2-4 April and completely blocked the central motorway near La Oroyo from Lima on 1 April. La Oroyo is 175 kilometres away west of Lima.
A branch union of ICEM affiliate FNTMMSP is one of the three unions involved in the pay dispute. The strike was called off after workers’ representatives and managers met on the afternoon of 4 April.
Doe Run is a privately-held US company that began operating in Peru in 1997. It mines, mills, and smelts some 59,000-tons-per-yar of copper, 129,000 of lead, 40,000 of zinc, and minor amount of gold and silver. In the US, Doe Run operates in the states of Arizona, Missouri, and Washington in lead recycling and lead smelting.
Last month, public health and environmental groups filed a petition against Peru before the human rights division of the Organisation of American States over contamination from Doe Run’s La Oroya operations. The complaint charges the Peruvian government with failing to put in place pollution controls, thus trampling “the human rights of the town’s citizens.”