12 September, 2013The Copper Workers’ Federation (FTC), affiliated to IndustriALL, has given its full backing to workers at the El Salvador Division of CODELCO Chile, who are on a legal strike to safeguard the division’s future.
The strike began on the first shift of 5 September and involves 1,122 members of unions N°2 (Potrerillos) and N°6 (Salvador), both part of CODELCO’s El Salvador Division. Unions were unable to reach agreement with the state-owned mining company through the normal process of collective bargaining.
The FTC issued a statement to the general public and its members declaring its support for “the sovereign decision by workers at the El Salvador Division to start a legal strike in order to ensure the government invests enough to make this important mining and metalworking operation viable in the medium and long term while also ensuring respect and decent conditions for the workers who strive every day to achieve this objective for the country”.
The FTC also criticised company management “for not having the capacity to listen and reach an agreement that is satisfactory to both sides”.
The FTC said “that it has always been and will remain available to help find a balanced and fair solution to this dispute in a framework of dialogue, mutual respect and understanding, for the good of the future of the division and its workers, who are the main asset of this company, which is owned by all Chileans”.
Regarding the government’s decision to invest only US$ 1,000 million in CODELCO in 2013, the FTC said that on 10 September “the National Executive Committee filed a claim for the Supreme Decree issued by the Finance Ministry to be declared legally invalid “as it constitutes an infringement of Decree Law 1.350 of 1976, which created the National Copper Corporation of Chile (CODECLO)".
IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriALL’s national council in Chile have declared their support for the Copper Workers’ Federation and its president Raimundo Espinoza, who is a member of the IndustriALL executive committee, and their efforts to find a solution to this labour dispute,
said Horacio Fuentes of the national metalworkers’ confederation, CONSTRAMET.