24 November, 2014Protecting the lives of mine workers and ensuring that the lucrative mining sector contributes to sustainable development were key issues on the agenda of the regional mining network, held in Sao Paolo from 15 to 17 November.
Mining accounts for 0.4 per cent of the global workforce yet suffers 3 per cent of the fatal accidents at work. In 1995, an ILO Convention was developed to address this appalling situation - nearly twenty years later many key mining countries have still not ratified the standard. In this period, some 220,000 mining workers around the world have died on the job, many of them as a direct result of government and employer inaction.
Twenty-eight participants from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay took an in-depth look at the contents of ILO Convention No. 176.
The participants also outlined a trade union strategy to take back to their respective organizations with a view to campaigning for ratification. The strategy starts with a review of existing legislation in order to determine the extent of the changes and investment that will be needed and includes joint trade union action between mining unions and national centres, high level meetings with ministers, members of parliament, employers and employers’ associations, as well as local union action at the constituency level.
Other elements of the campaign include seeking assistance from the ILO offices in each country in order to convene a tripartite meeting to examine the question of ratification, launching an awareness campaign to overcome the mind-set that considers fatal accidents as inevitable in mining, as well as including key provisions of the ILO Convention in collective bargaining agreements.
On the third day, the Latin American trade unionists were joined by colleagues from the Anglo American and Glencore trade union networks from Australia, Botswana, Canada, Congo, Namibia, South Africa, the US and Zambia for a debate on mining and development.
With the participation of academics and government representative, the debate helped to identify concerns that need to be addressed in order for mining to be considered sustainable. These elements include
- minimizing environmental impact
- ensuring full respect for labour and human rights
- enabling people to share in their common wealth
- promoting technological development so that mining can take its place in the value-added supply chain rather than remaining a merely extractive activity.
The debate highlighted the importance for producing countries to capitalize on the rising demand for rare strategic minerals, as well as to plan for the needs of future generations.
Participants also shared their experiences of building alliances with communities and social campaigners in fighting for a common goal, while making it clear they would never support the elimination of their jobs.
The regional mining network is part of a project supported by LO/TCO of Sweden and SASK of Finland.