18 May, 2011IMF and affiliates evaluate organizing efforts in the mining sector in Peru and set out strategic plan for the forthcoming year.
PERU: The annual evaluation meeting of the IMF organizing project in the mining sector in Perú was held in Lima on May 16-17 with the participation of IF-Metall from Sweden and SASK's regional coordinator for Latin America.
As an introduction to the workshop, Professor Antonio Zapata provided the participants with an in-depth analysis of the current political situation in Peru in this pre-electoral period, pointing out the risks for the workers and civil society if the right-wing candidate (Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the infamous Alberto Fujimori) wins the election on June 5. Fujimori promotes an explicit neo-liberal agenda and her victory will represent a return of the corrupt and anti-democratic regime installed by her father, meaning that the unions will need to enter a period of resistance.
Zapata also warned the participants that despite the fact that all the Peruvian unions are supporting Ollanta Humala, they need to be prepared to struggle for their agenda in the case of a victory by Humala. Brother Julio César Bazan, President of CUT-Peru to which SINTRAMIN is affiliated, explained the main challenges the Peruvian unions need to address jointly while reaffirming CUT's commitment to consolidate SINTRAMIN.
In two days of intensive debates the participants discussed the advances made and problems they face in their efforts to build a national union for subcontracted workers in the mining sector. SINTRAMIN-CUT was registered last year as a national union and now needs to increase membership and build their capacity to defend the subcontracted workers rights and improve their dire working conditions
For the next year a strategic plan focusing on four main areas was adopted: organizing and financial sustainability, political education, collective bargaining and freedom of association. Fernando Lopes, IMF Assistant General Secretary, closed the workshop saying that organizing the unorganized is one of the priorities of the IMF and building a national union with the capacity to organize all the workers (permanent and temporary) is the best tool to combat precarious work.