Global

Swiss mining giant Glencore is systematically violating human rights and health and safety laws, denying its workers their right to freedom of association at locations around the world.

IndustriALL Global Union and its affiliates around the world are launching a campaign to defend Glencore workers, demanding that Glencore:

The IndustriALL Global Union mission to Indonesia in solidarity with workers fired for striking at PT Freeport and PT Smelting, has revealed a human rights crisis, with workers losing access to food, housing, education and basic healthcare.

More than 4,200 workers at U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan’s PT Freeport, which operates the massive gold and copper Grasberg mine in West Papua, have been sacked for striking, while some 300 workers at PT Smelting in Gresik were fired after striking in January.

Mining operator PT Freeport Indonesia is laying off workers taking strike action at the Grasberg mine.

On 1 May, more than ten thousand mineworkers who are members of IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the Chemical, Energy and Mines Workers Union (CEMWU) embarked on 30 days of strike action in protest at the company’s furlough policy.

Contractors joined the strike on 9 May.

The company declared the strike illegal, and announced that striking workers would be considered absent without leave. Any worker absent for five days would lose their job.

Mineworkers at IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in three different continents are facing attack from multinational companies seeking to cut jobs, slash benefits and drive down wages.

Hecla Mining Company in the USA, Anglo American in Australia, and Freeport-McMoRan in Indonesia, are trying to break trade unions by refusing to enter into fair negotiations. The attacks are part of a global trend in the industry.

Major mining unions and the IndustriALL Global Union, representing mineworkers worldwide, are calling on the management of La Escondida copper mine in Chile and BHP Billiton, the majority owner, to resume collective agreement negotiations.

IndustriALL Global Union has written to the International Labour Organization (ILO) urging it to intervene to improve safety in Chinese coal mines, following the deaths of 86 coal miners in a matter of weeks.

On 5 November, over 800 people, including a delegation from IndustriALL, BHP unions from Australia, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, gathered along with representatives from social movements in the ghost town of Bento Rodriguez to demand justice for those affected by and punishment for those responsible for the dam collapse in 2015.

The event was organized by the Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB), a social movement that defends people affected by dams.

Addressing the crowd, IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan said: