14 January, 2009Around 3,000 miners have been sacked. The unions have been organising their response and demanding a solution to the situation.
PERU: Unions have denounced the wave of sackings in the mining sector in Peru at a press conference, where they called on Congress to appoint a commission to assess whether the sackings of 3,000 miners were justified.
The following attended the press conference: Jhon Guerra Poma, representing workers sacked by Perubar (who participated with a delegation of 39 sacked workers); Julio Cesar Bazan, President of the CUT Peru; Marino Ávila, General Secretary of the Siderperu blue-collar union; Secundino Torres Marin, General Secretary of Siderperu's white-collar union; Maria Sumire, member of Congress; and Janet Barzola of the CNMM.
Around 3,000 workers employed by ten mining companies were sacked in the final three months of 2008, due to the effects of the economic crisis. On 25 November, Perubar S.A., locked out 500 workers; Siderperu sacked 133 miners on 28 November and 407 on 9 December and the Aceros Arequipa factory in Pisco suspended production on 18 November and sacked 300 workers. The company that sacked the highest number (533) of workers was Huallanca, in Áncash. Other companies that sacked workers: Cerro Verde (300), Argentum S.A.A. (200), Quenuales (62) and Santa Teresa Poroma (30).
Speakers at the press conference said the companies had used the world economic crisis as a pretext for the massive wave of sackings. They added that mining company profits had increased by more than 150% between 2005 and 2007.
Janet Barzola said that: "The press conference has already had results. Perubar, a subsidiary of the Swiss transnational company Glencore agreed to union demands in record time". She added that workers at the Santa Teresa Poroma plant have succeeded in having their social welfare benefits recognized and 20 of the 30 sacked workers have been reinstated.