The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog

I just received the following from Jaime Delúquez, president of the union at the Cerrejon mine. It is very important that we support the union in its courageous--and unprecedented--step in taking on the rights of communities like Tabaco and Tamaquito in its bargaining proposal. We can do this by letting Cerrejon know that THE WORLD IS WATCHING these negotiations, and that ITS REPUTATION IS AT STAKE.

One way to do this is by getting important people--union leaders, political figures, power plant owners--to write letters supporting the union and its demands. I will fax these letters to the three companies that own the mine, and we will carry them to the Guajira on November 1 and give them to the mine representatives when we meet with them.

(You might want to mention the Danish government's recent decision to ban coal imports from the Drummond mine because of human rights violations there. And our recent and upcoming delegations to the Guajira.)

I'm sure you can think of other, creative ways to support the union and the communities in this process. Now is the time!!

Avi

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LETTER FROM JAIME DELUQUEZ, PRESIDENT OF SINTRACARBON:

The National Union of the Coal Industry "SINTRACARBON" is preparing to present a negotiating proposal to the corporation Carbones del Cerrejón. Carbones del Cerrejón is a joint venture by the multinationals Anglo-American, BHP Billiton, and Glencore (XStrata). The corporation's Cerrejón complex on the Guajira peninsula in Colombia is the largest open-pit coal mine in the world.

Our proposal contains some basic points for discussion including the health, education, and welfare of the communities in the mining region, the workers' lack of economic resources, and other issues.

Our union, SINTRACARBON, has maintained an important presence in the department of Guajira and in Colombia. We have participated in many social struggles in the region and in the country. We have participated in the struggle for the right to work of those who earn their living working in vehicles that come from Venezuela legally, in mobilizations by small business owners in Maicao, in the campaign for the right to work by gasoline merchants, in mobilizations for better public services, in the demands and demonstrations by the Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities for their rights, and others.

Our negotiations will begin in the month of November. We have high hopes of resolving the problems of the communities that have suffered the effects of coal mining and of the workers who have dedicated their working lives to the coal complex.

We thank all of the organizations that can lend us their support in this process.

Fraternally,

Jaime Delúquez

President, Sintracarbón