[from Avi Chomsky ] --
The Sintracarbon union at the Cerrejon mine is about to enter into collective bargaining negotiations with the company.  As in the 2006 bargaining round, the union is including a strong demand regarding the rights of the communities in the area.  Below, in English (my translation) and Spanish, is the language they have included regarding communities:
 
NEW ARTICLE 15.  COMMUNITIES
 
Cerrejon acknowledges its social debt to the Communities, and agrees to bring its negotiations for the relocation of Tamaquitos, Chancleta, Patilla, and Roche to a successful finish in 2009.
 
In order to guarantee a just negotiating environment, preserve the communities' cultural patrimony, and mitigate the social, economic, and environmental effects that the communties are suffering, during the conclusion of the negotiations Cerrejon will guarantee the following:
 
--provide productive lands from Cerrejon's propoerty, so that the communities can develop productive agricultural and livestock projects, guaranteeing that Cerrejon will purchase the products
 
--The communities will choose their legal, financial and other advisers, who will be paid by the company
 
--The communities will have the right to participate in the design and construction of the new dwellings in the areas that they are relocated to
 
--The company will finance productive projects necessary for community development and subsistence, during and after the negotiating process
 
--The company guarantees that it will preserve to the greatest degree possible the cultural patrimony of these communities, and guarantee their sustainable development
 
--The company will pay compensation for the intangible damanges suffered by these communities
 


ARTICULO NUEVO 15. COMUNIDADES.

A partir de la Presente CCT la empresa Cerrejón, en correspondencia a su deuda  social con las Comunidades, y mientras se concluyen los procesos de negociación con las poblaciones de Tamaquitos, Chancleta, Patillas y Roche, las cuales deberán  concluir en el año 2009.

Con la finalidad de darles un tratamiento justo a estas poblaciones, preservar su patrimonio cultural  y evitar se sigan afectando social, económica y ambientalmente, la empresa Cerrejón dará a estas comunidades mientras persistan los periodos de negociación lo siguiente:

·        Otorgará tierras productivas y mecanizadas  propiedad de Cerrejón,  en calidad de Comodato   para que estas poblaciones puedan desarrollar proyectos productivos de tipo agrícola o ganadero, garantizando la compra de estos productos finales.

·        Las poblaciones  escogerán  los asesores que requieran en la parte jurídica, financiera y demás, de los cuales dichos honorarios deberán ser cancelados por la empresa Cerrejón.

·        Las poblaciones aledañas que actualmente son objeto de negociación con Cerrejón, tendrán el derecho de participar en el diseño  y construcción de las nuevas vivienda en el sitio de reasentamiento.

·        Financiará los proyectos productivos que necesiten desarrollar las comunidades para su subsistencia, durante y después del proceso de negociación.

·        En estos procesos de negociación Cerrejón se compromete a conservar o afectar en lo menor posible el patrimonio cultural de estas poblaciones, y garantizar el desarrollo sostenible y sustentable de éstas.

·        Se deberá realizar un pago por parte de Cerrejón, por indemnización, compensación y daños intangibles a estas poblaciones.


I also quote here from the preamble of the proposal:

Cerrejon and Sintracarbon agree to a collective bargaining process as a space for an important dialogue, a dialogue which will be broad and will generate a confidence based upon respect.  Its goal will be to establish equity, social justice, and a just and equitable distribution of the wealth and profitability of Cerrejon, in order to allow better conditions and quality of life for the workers, to allow them to live decent lives.

The Company and the workers will have the opportunity to create a dialogue that will establish labor peace, based upon human rights, labor rights, and freedom of association and collective bargaining for all of Cerrejon's workers, including sub-contracted workers.

La empresa CARBONES DEL CERREJON LIMITED y el Sindicato Nacional de los Trabajadores de la Industria del Carbon “SINTRACARBON”, a través de la negociación colectiva, tendrán un espacio de dialogo importante,  dialogo de caracter amplio que permita  generar confiaza enmarcada en el respeto, y direccionado a establecer equidad, justicia social y un reparto justo y equitativo de las riquezas o rentabilidad del Cerrejon, que permitan unas mejores condiciones y calidad de vida de los trabajadores , que les permita vivir dignamente.

La empresa y los trabajadores tienen la oportunidad de crear un método de dialogo que establezca una paz laboral, basada en los derechos humanos, en los derechos laborales, en la libertad de asociación y negociacion colectiva de todos los trabajadores del cerrejon incluido los trabajadores contratistas.

(sent by Avi Chomsky )
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Colombians view plant

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By Grant Welker
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Nov 24, 2008 @ 10:39 PM

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Somerset —

They have toiled for more than 20 years to get the coal out of ground of their sprawling Colombian open pit mines, but had never seen until Monday where all that material — valuable enough to be controlled by paramilitary groups and dangerous enough to injure or kill scores of their co-workers —  ends up.

Estivenson Avila and Jesus Brochero stood by the cold Mount Hope Bay Monday afternoon to watch the Brayton Point power plant in the distance, with a barge loaded with a pile of coal docked out front. For the two Colombian men, it was the latest stop on a tour of the United States that included visits to mines in Appalachia and power plants in Somerset and Salem.

“The coal brings benefit to you but brings a very different experience to us,” said Avila, a union president who recently moved to a new village because of a certain risk: his two predecessors were assassinated by a paramilitary group that works with the owner of the La Loma mine where he is a truck driver.

“In Colombia, it has caused us a lot of trouble and hardships.”

Brochero is a technical mechanic at the Cerrejon mine, currently the largest in the world at more than 18 miles across. His situation is better, he said, because the owner of his mine, an international consortium, takes more responsibility for the workers and neighboring villages. A 47-year-old father of four, Brochero, also a union leader, was trained at a school run by the mining company, which has also negotiated with area communities about relocation.

The villages surrounding the La Loma mine, about a four-hour drive away in northern Colombia, aren’t as lucky, Avila said. They also want to be relocated because the environmental toll the mine has wrought, but Drummond, the owner of La Loma, doesn’t take responsibility, he said.

La Loma is most dangerous to its thousands of workers, though. In recent years, 55 workers have been seriously injured, and in 2002 three workers died when a wall collapsed next to where they were working. Only days before, the workers had warned Drummond that the wall was at risk of collapse, Avila said.

Avila himself, a 46-year-old father of three, has been injured despite 23 years of experience. He was in a truck being loaded when a boulder weighing tons was dropped into the back. He was given a shot and forced to finish his shift. Spinal cord injuries are common in the mines, both men said, because of shocks caused when boulders weighing up to 15 tons are dropped into the backs of massive trucks.

The La Loma mine uses the dangerous process because it can fill a truck with coal in 30 seconds. A safer method, used by Brochero’s Cerrejon mine, which employs more than 10,000 workers, takes up to one minute.

Both men are in the U.S. to educate Americans about the origin of the coal used to power their homes. Both spoke through a translator, Avi Chomsky of Salem, from Witness for Peace, the organization that brought Avila and Brochero here, the first time it has hosted union workers from Colombia.

Typically when environmental groups talk about Brayton Point, they mention its impact on Mount Hope Bay or the area’s air, but the visit from the Colombians gave a rare perspective. Avila and Brochero said Dominion, the owner of Brayton Point, can help their cause by pressuring the mines to pay their workers a fair wage, help with injuries and respect neighboring communities.

Brochero mentioned an often-used phrase in Colombia: “Mining, yes. But not like this.” Union workers like Avila and Brochero earn about $3 an hour. Others can make as little as 45 cents an hour.

In the United States, union workers typically make $15 to $30 an hour, they said. Both men said they were surprised, however, at how similar mines in West Virginia and Kentucky were to those in Colombia. Mine workers in both countries share similar health risks and suffer from “black lung” from breathing in soot, they said. The environment is similarly harmed in both countries, they added.

E-mail Grant Welker at gwelker@heraldnews.com.

Read the article on line with photo:  http://www.heraldnews.com/homepage/x1772961032/Colombians-view-Brayton-Point
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(for more info, email Avi Chomsky)
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Coal provides almost 50% of the electricity produced in the United States. Much of that coal—including what's burned at the Salem and Brayton Point plants in Massachusetts—comes from two giant, multinational mines in Colombia.

In Colombia, some of the most powerless people-indigenous people with no resources, no electricity, no water-and some of the most vulnerable- unions in a country with the highest rates of assassination and repression against union activists in the world-are taking on some of the most powerful multinationals. We have a lot to learn from their example.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25

6:00 pm-Meet the speakers, network

6:45 pm-Hear from, dialogue with the speakers

ENCUENTRO 5, 33 HARRISON ST., 5th FL.
CHINATOWN, BOSTON, MA

Estevinson Avila, president of the Sintramienergética union which unites workers from the Drummond-owned and operated mine of La Loma, has been pursued by paramilitaries because of his involvement in the union.

Jesús Brochero is a top leader of Sintracarbón, the National Union of Coal Industry Workers which represents employees of the multinational-owned Cerrejón Mine in Colombia.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

For more information contact rkrushnic@gmail.com or achomsky@salemstate.edu.
Sponsored by Mass Global Action, Colombia Vive, Jobs With Justice, the MLK Bolivarian Circle of Boston, United For A Fair Economy


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(from Avi Chomsky) --

From the Birmingham News. These are the folks who will be in Salem/Boston next week.
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