20 March, 2012The IMF and its Swedish and Finnish affiliates assess project advances in Lima, Peru and discuss the future organization of IndustriALL Global Union in Peru.
PERU: The International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) and its Swedish and Finnish affiliates met with the leadership of SINTRAMIN-CUT on March 14 and 15 to evaluate the ongoing process of building a National Union of Mining Workers (SINTRAMIN-CUT). This union was founded in 2009 and since then has campaigned to organize affiliates and to negotiate their first collective agreement. SINTRAMIN-CUT was born as an alternative response to the dire situation of subcontracted mining workers in Peru, who represent 80 per cent of the workers in the sector, most of whom are not organized, are employed under flexible temporary contracts with miserable wages and working conditions very inferior to those of the permanent mining workers.
The Peruvian trade union culture is to form company unions, which creates huge problems when seeking to organize the subcontracted workers - each time a union is organized the contractor mining company can use different tactics such as changing their name, then identifying and dismissing the newly organized workers, to destroy the union. Another major barrier to organizing in Peru is the current trade union practice of organizing separate unions for permanent workers and for subcontracted workers, even though they work side by side in the same mining centre.
SINTRAMIN proposes an alternative to these problems by organizing a national union for the sector, which can affiliate both subcontracted and permanent workers into one national industrial structure, thus avoiding having the union registration linked to the existence of a company or a contractor. For tactical reasons, it has been decided that SINTRAMIN will continue to focus on organizing subcontracted workers in the unorganized mining centres.
IMF Assistant General Secretary Fernando Lopes declared that the evaluation of the project on organizing mine workers in Peru served to show that SINTRAMIN's leadership is prepared to take on the challenge and is committed to work hard to continue to grow and build sustainably, as the approved project period ends in 2013.
The delegation of representatives from the IMF head office and regional office, Finnish Metalworkers and the Finnish solidarity support organization SASK, IF Metall from Sweden, and USW from the U.S. and Canada also met with the Federación Minera-CGTP and the Solidarity Centre seeking to strengthen cooperation and solidarity. The IMF delegation also met separately with the main national centres CGTP and CUT to which SINTRAMIN is affiliated.
Finally, on March 16 the Peruvian affiliates of IMF (FENA-PERU), ICEM (Federacion Minera and Petrol workers) and ITGLWF (FNTTP) all came together to discuss the creation of IndustriALL and its implications in Perú. The Union of Electricity workers of Lima, Sergio Novaes (ICEM regional vice president), Laura Carter (ITGLWF), Ben Davis (USW), Laura Ramirez (USW), and Samantha Tate (Solidarity Centre) all participated in this meeting.
Jorge Almeida, IMF representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, declared that IndustriALL will start with great possibilities for success in Peru, because the affiliates from the three GUFs are aware of their responsibilities and are disposed to work together to strengthen the Peruvian trade union movement.