11 January, 2010
The struggle continues for trade union rights for contract workers at Colombia’s vast mining complex, Carbones del Cerrejón. ICEM mining affiliate Sintracarbón has been fighting to organize the contract workers at the mine.
Following the successful organization of mechanics and machinists of the company Chaneme at Cerrejón in November (see InBrief No. 144 here), the new union Sintrachaneme was formed and recognized by Chaneme. Since, the company has refused to discuss even the slightest improvements to salaries and working conditions with either Sintrachaneme or Sintracarbón.
A second union of contract workers under Sintracarbón’s guidance, Sintrans, representing transport workers of the Sotrans company, has seen that employer refuse to recognise the union or to consider any of the bus drivers’ demands. In fact, the sacking of union activists among bus drivers has brought fear and reluctance by workers to engage in union activity.
Sintracarbón, with the full support of ICEM, is focusing efforts towards the consolidation of Sintrachaneme and pressuring the mechanical maintenance contractor to accept the demands of workers. International support is important in the push for a collective agreement between Chaneme and its 300 staff, an accord that will guarantee the existence of the union.
“The Chaneme management, Carbones de Cerrejón management, and the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection must all commit to the process,” said Sintracarbón representative Jaime Deluquez.
Since workers of Chaneme and Sotrans at Cerrejón took the step to organize, they have suffered a campaign of harassment and persecution from employers. Sintracarbón, consisting of 3,500 direct employed miners at Cerrejón, has denounced complicity by their employer of denial of work rights by contractors, saying Carbones del Cerrejón has “turned a blind eye to the abuses.”
Harassment has included workers being visited at home, with threats of dismissal or offers of perks in return for loyalty to the contractors and a turn against the newly-formed unions.
Cerrejón management is also criticised by its mining workforce for applying double standards, claiming on the one hand that it respects human and trade union rights with rhetoric that it support the free association into unions of workers of contractors, while working covertly with the contractors and units of government to destroy the trade union organization process.
These abuses of the right of association and collective bargaining contravene national law, the Colombian Constitution, and ILO Conventions 87 and 98, ratified by Colombia.
An ICEM Project on Social Dialogue, organized by Colombian Coordinator Carlos Bustos and counting Carbones del Cerrejón as a participant, has achieved exemplary results. The multinational companies holding stakes in one of the world’s largest open-cast coal mining operations – Xstrata, AngloAmerican, and BHP Billiton – must now prove that a commitment to the Social Dialogue Project and to global labour standards is genuine by stepping forward to defend the rights of outsourced workers at its mining operation in La Guajira department in northeastern Colombia.