IndustriALL and Sintracarbón call for meaningful dialogue with Glencore on production cuts at Cerrejón Colombia

Glencore announced that it will reduce coal output at its Cerrejón mine in Colombia by 5–10 million tonnes this year. Cerrejón claims that the cuts will have no impact on the company's social and environmental commitments, but Sintracarbón and local communities are nevertheless concerned about the effects they will have.

The union and local communities asked Cerrejón to provide more detailed information about the consequences of the cuts, but have not received a reply. Cerrejón management says that it does not have that information, as all decisions are taken by Glencore in Switzerland.

Igor Diaz, member of Sintracarbón's national executive committee, said that everything happened suddenly, with the company's announcement of the cuts taking workers by surprise:

"We want to know what Glencore is planning for Cerrejón, its subsidiary in Colombia. We want to know what it intends to do, because these decisions could create a whole army of unemployed people.”

“We want to know if this is part of the Cerrejón mine closure plan scheduled for 2034. We have been working on economic diversification, but we don’t have any alternative solutions yet”,

said Diaz.

IndustriALL’s general secretary Atle Høie wrote a letter to Glencore's CEO in Switzerland, Gary Nagle, to ask for more information on how he expects the cuts at Cerrejón not to have an impact on jobs and the company’s environmental commitments.

Høie ended his letter as follows:

“Glencore has in the past shown the ability in other jurisdictions facing similar circumstances to engage meaningfully in dialogue with workers and communities. For the sake of consistency in the application of your policies, we are calling on Glencore to ensure its plans for Cerrejón bear the hallmark of transparency.”