WORKERS FRONT Bulletin No 33, 2010

The workers resumed the protest on 21 May with a peaceful occupation of the installations at the Cusiana CPF (Central Processing Facility) in the face of frustrated efforts to reach agreement with BP on the labour negotiating commission. BP has taken upon itself to misrepresent the events aiming to confuse the regional, national and international communities. It has been circulating communiqués and leaflets in the districts of the town of Tauramena.

At the end of the last round of talks in the [five] negotiating commissions on 7 May, a general invitation was made to all members of our movement and to the community in general, including representatives of the municipal administration, given the importance of the positions they might adopt. At that meeting a report was given of the terms that the corporations and the government had sought for talks to recommence on 23 June. These terms were rejected by the participants in the community meeting, who stated that talks should continue the following week, from 12 May.

On Thursday 15 April a team from community group COS-PACC, Espacio Bristol-Colombia and the Colombia Solidarity Campaign entered the BP AGM to press the Petition of Demands drawn up by the Movement for Dignity of Casanare: for a union collective agreement, for environmental and human rights protections, for real social investment and for the corporation to take goods and services from local suppliers.

S.O.S

ANNOUNCED MASSACRE IN THE MINING MUNICIPALITY OF SUAREZ, CAUCA, COLOMBIA

Santiago de Cali, 8th April 2010

Eight miners were murdered by armed men travelling in two vehicles and a motor bike. The killings occurred in a place known as “Alto de Ovejas”, a rural zone in the municipality of Suárez, department of Cauca, southern Colombia. The place where the massacre occurred is the upper part of the Ovejas river. It can be reached by a one and a half hour journey on foot.

Court rules company failed to consult local people

A highly controversial new mining project in Colombia has been halted by court order, because the operating company failed to consult with local communities.

Over the past year Muriel Mining's Mande Norte operations have been vigorously attacked by a number of organisations inside and outside Colombia.
See: http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/MandeNorte

So, too,  has Rio Tinto's association with Muriel: the UK-Australian giant has an option agreement to "farm-in" to a future mine or its profits.
See: http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=9194

Workers at the BP processing plant at Tauramena, part of the Cusiana oil field in Casanare, Colombia went on strike on 22 January 2010 for improved wages. It was the first such labour stoppage in 18 years. On 15 February the notorious ESMAD 'anti-mutiny' police brutally attacked the workers picket line and the local community with teargas and beatings, three workers were hospitalised. The workers are members of the national Oil Workers Union USO that has only been able to organise in BP plants in the last year.

 

International Day of Action - 5pm on Friday19 March at UBS HQ, 100 Liverpool Street  

"You. It's not just a word. It's a commitment."  (UBS publicity)