8 June, 2011As the dispute between the state mining company and contract workers continues, members of FTC affiliates have gone on strike because the company is unable to guarantee their safety and physical integrity.
CHILE: The IMF affilaite Copper Workers' Federation (Federación de Trabajadores del Cobre - FTC) has announced that members of affiliated unions at the mine have gone on strike until the company is able to guarantee their safety and physical integrity.
They took this decision in the context of the labour dispute between Codelco and contract workers at its El Teniente Division, after buses taking them to the mine were stoned on June 2.
"This decision by affiliated unions at El Teniente complies completely with the position taken by the FTC National Executive on May 25, which expressly stated that members would go on strike in the event of attacks that put at risk the lives and physical integrity of Codelco employees", said the FTC.
The FTC has called on the government of President Sebastián Piñera "to accept, rather than avoid, responsibility for provoking a situation that has led an important Codelco division to stop production, affecting all Chileans. Clearly, a dispute that the regional authorities brought upon themselves with their statements has got out of hand and they are now incapable of controlling it, with the enormous costs that this entails."
"The FTC has always supported the demands and just actions of contract workers, represented by their trade unions. What we cannot accept, and what we have never accepted, is manipulation that promotes the interests of non-workers and threatens the integrity of the workers we represent."
The strike will be maintained until normality returns and until there are full guarantees that members will not run risks that endanger their life and health, concluded the FTC.