—Brian Williams
Coal miners in Colombia
end month-long strike
Some 3,500 coal miners on strike against Drummond Co. in Colombia ended their month-long walkout in late June. The company agreed to a new contract at the La Loma mining complex in the northeastern part of the South American country. According to Omar Estupian, president of the Colombian energy workers union, the workers were demanding a substantial raise over their current $3-an-hour average, safer working conditions, and improved benefits, the Birmingham News reported. The company stated that both sides agreed to a 12 percent pay raise. Drummond, which is based in Birmingham, Alabama, is also being sued in a U.S. District Court for the deaths of three union organizers near the company’s mines in Colombia in 2001.
—Brian Williams
New Zealand: postal workers
ban overtime in contract fight
AUCKLAND, New Zealand— In a fight for a new contract, postal workers have been refusing to work overtime. The company responded by suspending dozens of workers. The unionists, organized by the Postal Workers Federation unions (PWF), began the overtime ban after voting down the company’s contract offer by a nine-to-one margin in early July. Their old contract expired at the end of June. The PWF represents 850 of around 2,100 such workers nationwide.
Union members are demanding a wage increase greater than the 4 percent rate of inflation and a five-day workweek instead of their present six-day schedule. They also oppose the unequal pay for new hires imposed in 2000 by New Zealand Post, a former government department. At the Greenlane depot, in the days following the suspensions and pickets, the company tried to clear the backlog of mail with scabs, but backed off when workers threatened strike action.
—Helen Mulrennan
Related articles:
Many mine emergency air devices are found defective
Two more coal miners die on the job in Kentucky, bringing year’s toll to 35
U.S. coal miner in Australia speaks on union fight
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