The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog

from: Avi Chomsky

Hello, Colombia list and recently-returned delegates...

I'm working on a report-back on our Aug.4-11 delegation, which was hugely
eventful and successful. In the meantime, I wanted to circulate the
following from Alison Paul, one of our Witness for Peace team leaders. Our
delegation met with striking workers at the La Jagua coal mine, owned by
Glencore, on the second day of our trip. 112 mine workers, hired through a
subcontractor, had been fired a few days before we arrived. 30 workers
began an occupation of the mine, and the others established a kind of tent
city at the mine's entrance. We were traveling with Estivenson Avila,
president of the Sintramienergetica union (which represents workers at the
Drummond mine, and which the fired La Jagua workers had recently voted to
join). Estivenson, and workers who we spoke with, expressed their fears
that the army and/or police would be brought in to violently break their
strike. We added an impromptu visit to the offices of the Mayor of La
Jagua, to let them know of our presence and concern, and hopes that the
government would not resort to force.

Message from Alison:
Hi all,

Yesterday I met with Estivenson of Sintramienergetica about the current
situation facing both Glencore and Drummond miners in Cesar. Here's the
basic update and we'd like to ask that you all take a minute to make a few
phone calls and/or fax letters to the people listed at the bottom of this
page. Estivenson noted yesterday that he thought that the only reason they
hadn't already come in and broke up the workers' protest violently was due
to the international pressure that they have been receiving - so let's keep
it up!

Glencore/La Jagua de Ibirico:

There are 27 people still left inside the mine and the other workers
(about 300 people), which we visited, remain at the entrances of the mine.
The workers inside the mine are only being allowed one meal a day at this
point, which has left them very weak after 14 days in the mine.

Yesterday, Estivenson reported that the local mayor (who we also met
with) was given 48 hours to sign the document which allows the troops and
riot police (ESMAD) to use force to bust up the protest. They are very
fearful that there will be violent attacks against the workers and their
families. The workers have said that the only way that the
police/military/ESMAD will have to kill them to make them leave and in the
meantime there has reportedly been an increase in militarization in La Jagua
with soldiers and police everywhere. Estivenson reported that the national
police for Cesar had sent two 12 seater planes full of ESMAD riot police to
La Jagua yesterday in what appears to be preparations for a violent attack
on the protesting workers.

As we mentioned last week after talking to the mayor, there have been
some talks between the workers/union and the contractor company (OMC),
however, the results have been far from satisfactory for the union. The
company is offering to give only 10 of the 112 fired workers work at
Glencore through another contracting company (CMU). The union is proposing
that they start with employing 20 fired workers now and another 80 in the
near future.

The alphabet soup involved is a bit confusing when we start taking
about all the contracting companies, but the gist of the story is this:

Workers at the OMC contracting company affiliated to SINTRAMIENERGETICA
and the company responded by firing the workers (terminating and/or not
renewing their contracts), a total of 357 workers have been fired from OMC.
There are several other contracting companies (CMU, CDJ, SOS) that are
receiving other workers to compensate for the other 112 workers that are now
not in the mine working. They have said that they will be hiring people
from La Jagua for these positions although it appears to mainly be a way to
break the union.

In addition, the fired unionized workers had their "fuero sindical" or
a state mandated protection that says you can't fire unionized workers for
being affiliated to a union. The Minister of Social Protection (the
government entity in charge of labor issues) fined OMC $110,000,000 pesos
for violating their fuero sindical, however they never paid it because a
local judge took away the fine even though he didn't have the jurisdiction
to do so according to the union.

Below is a recent press release that the union sent out in Spanish. They
are asking for support from the international community to make sure that
there is a peaceful resolution to the conflict. PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE to
send out notes and/or make phone calls to the people listed at the end of
their press release. In addition, please contact your embassies as well
asking them to contact these people. For those of you who would also like
to contact the mayor of La Jagua, his contact info is: Fabio Mendoza, 312
619 1981, famendiaz@hotmail.com. The Glencore rep. we met with there was
Alba Royero, at alba.royero@cdj.com.co.


Drummond
Starting five days ago Drummond began firing worker, the majority of
which are union members. There have been 17 workers fired, many of which
had worked at the company for 8, 9, 10 years. The union had a meeting with
the company about the firings and Drummond said they were being fired
because the union had the company "cornered" and that they planned to fire
150 workers over the next six months.

Could we have a volunteer from the group draft a letter to Drummond as a
follow-up from the group that we could all sign? Just an idea, feel free to
throw out other ideas as well.

Thanks to you all for coming to coming to Colombia, participating in the
delegation, and being around to do these follow-up actions!

Take care,

Alison

La jagua de Ibirico, 13 de agosto de 2007.

Compañeros:
ORGANIZACIÓN SINDICALES HERMANAS
NACIONALES E INTERNACIONALES
E. S. M.

Solicitud: SOLIDARIDAD PARA COMPAÑEROS EN CONFLICTO OMC.

Reciban un fraternal saludo de hermanos de clase.

El día 1 de agosto de 2007, fueron despedidos masivamente 112 trabajadores
de la empresa Operadores Mineros del Cesar "OMC", afiliados a
Sintramienergética Seccional Becerril, este despido es con el fin de acabar
la Organización Sindical y negar la negociación del Pliego de Peticiones que
el pasado 5 de marzo del corriente año, presentaron los trabajadores a la
empresa OMC y haciendo uso del derecho de la solidaridad extensiva, el
Pliego de Peticiones se comunico a la empresa Matriz Consorcio Minero
Unido - CMU y Carbones de la Jagua S.A. de propiedad de la transnacional
GLENCORE A.G.

Desde el 1º de agosto hasta hoy 13, es el tiempo que los compañeros de
Sintramienergética Seccional Becerril se mantienen en las entradas de la
Mina acompañados de sus esposas e hijos en paupérrimas condiciones,
expuestos al sol y al agua, soportando las inclemencias del tiempo y la
contaminación ambiental, pero con una firmeza indeclinable; con mayor
sacrificio 27 compañeros se encuentran atrapados en las instalaciones de la
Mina, mas preciso en el lugar de operaciones soportando el atropello verbal
de los funcionarios de la empresa, hostigamiento y la amenaza de desalojo
por parte de la policía y el ejercito nacional y a pesar de que han sufrido
hambre, sed y quebrantos de salud, se mantienen firmes con una posición
indeclinable en defensa de los derechos que hoy la transnacional GLENCORE
A.G., viene vulnerando.

Es por ello que demandamos la solidaridad, línea de oro de la clase obrera,
para que los compañeros puedan llevar con éxito la acción que han emprendido
desde todo punto de vista legal, acción que calificamos como justa, legitima
y heroica.

Solicitamos de manera URGENTE, la solidaridad económica, para que la lucha
de los compañeros se mantenga hasta culminar con una salida negociable en
donde se garantice la existencia de la Organización Sindical y el puesto de
trabajo de todos. Las consignaciones pueden hacerlas a nombre de
Sintramienergética, Cuenta Corriente No. 32442000066-7, Banco Agrario de
Colombia.

Favor enviar notas de rechazo, exigiendo solución al conflicto planteado, a
las empresas: Operadores Mineros del Cesar OMC; Fax: 631 42 20 de
Bucaramanga - Nelly Bohórquez, Gerente. Consorcio Minero Unido CMU; Fax:
3530643 Barranquilla y GLENCORE A.G., email: info@glencore.com , teléfono:
3582825 - Barranquilla.

Notas dirigidas a:

Presidencia de la República
Dr. ÁLVARO URIBE VELEZ
Carrera 8 No. 7 -26, Palacio de Nariño
Fax: (+571) 566 20 71
Correo Electrónico: auribe@presidencia.gov.co
Bogotá D.C.

Ministerio de Defensa Nacional
Avenida El Dorado con carrera 52 CAN

Ministerio de la Protección Social
Carrera 13 No. 32 - 76
PBX: (57-1) 3305000 Fax: (57-1) 3305050
Bogotá D.C.

Ministerio de Minas
Transversal 45 No. 26 - 86 - CAN
PBX: (57-1) 3 2 4 5 2 6 2,
Apartado Aéreo: 8 0 3 1 9 Bogotá
Web master: mltorres@minminas.gov.co

Defensoría del Pueblo
Dr. VOLMAR ANTONIO PEREZ ORTIZ,
Calle 55 No. 10 - 32
Fax: (57-1) 6400491
Email: secretaria_privada@hotmail.com

Ministerio del Interior
Carrera 9a. No. 14-10
PBX (+571) 444 31 00
VICEMINISTRO DEL INTERIOR 59 99 201
VICEMINISTRO DE JUSTICIA 59 99 501
SECRETARIA GENERAL 560 30 47
Email: admin_web@mij.gov.co ; reclamos@mij.gov.co

Favor enviar copias de las comunicaciones a:
Funtraenergetica: funtraenergetica@colombia.com
Sintramienergética Nacional: sintramienergeticanacional@gmail.com ó
sintramienergeticanacional@hotmail.com


JUNTA DIRECTIVA
SINTRAMIENERGETICA SECCIONAL BECERRIL


Firmado
Firmado
ALFREDO MANUEL TOVAR PEREZ JACOB HENRIQUEZ CARPINTERO
Presidente
Secretario General



------------------------------