24 August, 2010The International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) expresses solidarity with the 33 workers trapped 700 meters underground in the San José mine since August 5.
CHILE: The IMF, through its Latin American and Caribbean Regional Office, has been closely following the events that have in the last few days provoked such anguish and desperation among miners and throughout the country, as rescue teams have sought to locate and rescue the miners trapped in the San José mine since a tunnel collapsed on August 5.
On Sunday, August 22, it was confirmed that the 33 workers are still alive, 700 meters below the surface.
Through its affiliates, the IMF conveyed its solidarity to the workers in the San José mine. A statement said the IMF values the way that "the Chilean government, the administration and the rescue groups have shown their humanity and solidarity by wanting to rescue the miners, have not spared any efforts to bring them out alive and are doing everything they can to try to rescue them as quickly as possible. We know that accidents of these proportions do not always result in sufficiently vigorous rescue operations and that mines are closed leaving workers trapped, as occurred on February 19, 2006 when 65 Mexican workers at the Pasta de Conchos mine owned by Grupo Mexico were trapped after an explosion that prevented the workers from leaving the mine. The bodies of those workers are still in the mine. Their families and the IMF have on many occasions called for their bodies to be recovered."
The National Council of IMF affiliates in Chile (Federación de Trabajadores del Cobre, Consfetema, Constramet y Huachipato) says the accident indicates that the authorities and the companies are not conducting enough inspections of mining installations.
The IMF says that accidents such as the one at the San José mine show the dangers of mining work, the precarious nature of working conditions and the lack of preventive safety and protection measures. Since 2007, our affiliates in Chile have increased their calls on the Chilean government to ratify the International Labour Organization Convention 176, on Safety and Health in Mines. This year, on April 28, as part of World Health and Safety at Work Day, the IMF Council in Chile once again requested the government to ratify ILO Convention 176.
The IMF does not understand why Chile, as a mining country, has not ratified the convention. It hopes that, in the context of this accident, mining companies will never again risk workers' lives, that they take appropriate steps to make the mining industry safe, that the authorities intensify inspections and the government ratifies ILO Convention 176.