25 March, 2014Workers at a Glencore copper mining company in Southern Peru have walked off the job in protest at labour rights’ abuses.
On 24 March, workers at the Antapaccay company, a Glencore Xstrata subsidiary, began a two-day stoppage in protest of the failure to pay legally-mandated profit sharing; the violation of the collective bargaining agreement; the use of fixed-term contracts, and the illegal dismissal of employees for forming a union of technicians and administrative staff.
The Antapaccay mining company first came to the attention of IndustriALL Global Union in December last year, after its shameless attempts to destroy the newly formed union of white-collar staff.
Unions at the plant say that the positive industrial relations’ climate that prevailed at the company for eighteen years under a succession of different owners, came to a brutal end when Glencore Xstrata acquired the company less than a year and a half ago. Since then, Glencore Xstrata has closed several unionized operations and has resorted to the widespread use of precarious employment and unfair labour practices.
The job action at Antappacy has been taken jointly by the two unions at the plant, the Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores de Xstrata Tintaya Antapaccay and the Sindicato Unificado de Trabajadores de Xstrata Tintaya Antappacy. It is supported by the Sindicato de Trabajadores Funcionarios de la Compañia Minera Antapaccay, whose leaders are currently demanding reinstatement. IndustriAll’s affiliate the Federación Minera is actively supporting the action.