| 15 July 2006 When is the cost too high?
by Robert Chant
Price of coal
Cape Breton is no stranger to the high price of mining coal. For almost two
centuries, many of our miner's have paid the cost with their lives. And years after the
last mines in Cape Breton have shut down, the value of coal used on our island can still
be measured in the number of lives lost.
For many decades power was generated from coal mined in Cape
Breton, but as the last mine was closed, Nova Scotia Power (NSP) turned to Colombia for a
cheap source of fuel. The country may offer a low-priced supply of coal, but Colombian
coal also includes a much higher price tag; the cost of human lives.
Human rights violations
Of all the human rights violations in Columbia, the majority can be
attributed to the mining and petroleum exporting regions. Such abuses range from
union-busting tactics, forcible displacement of entire communities, some of the world's
most dangerous working conditions, and at it worst, the outright torture and murder of
hundreds of union leaders and the massacre of thousands of Colombian residents in recent
years.
Colombia has always been a dangerous place for unionists.
Union leaders have been imprisoned or frequently punished with death because the
government views unions as a threat to the social and economic future of the country.
Since 1991, more than 2,000 labour leaders, caught up in the battle between right-wing
paramilitary groups and leftist guerrillas, have been killed, according to the National
Union School in Colombia.
In March 2001, two union leaders leaving a coal mine owned
by a U.S. mining company were dragged from their bus and executed by paramilitary gunmen.
Seven months later, a third, who took over the position of one of the murdered men, was
assassinated in the same fashion. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
reports that another 184 trade unionists were murdered in 2002.
The rising death toll in Colombia accounts for more
unionists casualties than the rest of the world combined. And this situation has provoked
a wave of protest from unions everywhere, challenging not only the human rights violations
in Colombia, but also policies that make the carnage possible.
Benefactors
Multinational corporations operating in Colombia benefit from the cheap
labour that is a direct result of the repression of unions by paramilitaries. It is no
coincidence that the killings of unionists increase during periods in which labour
contracts are being renegotiated.
This labour repression, along with economic policies imposed
on Colombia by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) intended to create an
investment-friendly environment, have contributed to multinational companies closing down
North American mines that cannot compete with Colombia's low wages, unsafe working
conditions and lack of environmental regulations.
The Refugees
Activists in Colombia, the United States and Canada have also been
critical of the environmental and social impact of Colombian mining practices. There are
reports of forced and violent displacement of residents in small towns in northern
Colombia to make way for the expansion of the country's largest coal mine, the El
Cerrejón Norte.
The El Cerrejón Norte mine is constantly expanding to
satisfy growing international demand for its coal. And when families in the path of
development refused to accept offers they considered too low, bulldozers are brought in,
and the villages are illegally destroyed. As a result of such forced relocations, Colombia
now has 3 million internally displaced refugees.
Villagers who insisted on collectively negotiating the
relocation of Tabaco, a small village near the Cerrejón mine, were forcibly displaced
from their homes by 200 Colombian soldiers, police and members of the mine's private
security force. Many villagers received no remuneration following their displacement and
have continued to demand that the mine's owners resettle their community without success.
El Cerrejón Norte mine
The El Cerrejón Norte is one of the world's largest open-pit mines,
covering an area 50km long, by 8km wide, and is expanding constantly. The owners of the
mine have publicized that they intend to increase annual coal production from 26 million
to 32 million metric tons. As production increases, it requires extending the mine further
into the territory of more surrounding villages. These communities are likely to be
relocated or obliterated when the company decides it needs the land.
Security at the El Cerrejón Norte mine is provided by the
Colombian army from a nearby military base, and an assortment of violent paramilitaries
and death squads now control the region around the mine. Using threats, constant patrols,
kidnappings, targeted disappearances and assassinations, these well-armed groups terrorize
villagers and intimidate local organizations and leaders who speak out for native
communities' rights or are otherwise seen as interfering with or challenging the mining
company's control of the region.
Union busting terrorism
Glencore's, one of the owners of the Cerrejón mine, human rights abuses are not
limited to the displacement of impoverished Colombian villagers. The company's
wholly-owned Colombian subsidiary Prodeco has violated labour rights by actively seeking
to bust its employees' union. Glencore purchased Prodeco in 1996 and following a strike by
workers in 1999, fired 21 union members who had participated in the work stoppage. In the
ensuing years, the company forced many unionized workers into early retirement and
replaced them with new employees who were prohibited from joining the union.
In September 1999, union leader Henry Ayala Gualdron was
detained by the Colombian National Police and imprisoned for 15 days without any charges
being filed. Another labour leader from Prodeco's mine was abducted, beaten and questioned
about his union activities by right-wing paramilitaries engaged in a dirty war against
those sectors of civil society struggling for social justice. According to the union, the
company's tactics had reduced the number of unionized employees to 25 by 2004, down from
188 five years earlier.
Colombia's rightist paramilitary army, the United Defense
Groups (AUC), have been charged with the murders of union activist, union leaders, and
coal miners. Unionists hold the AUC and the Colombian military responsible for almost all
of the trade union assassinations. The Colombian government views union activity as a
challenge to its basic economic policies. The government also has a history of using the
military during labour disputes in the mines. In the early 1990s the Cerrejón Norte mine
was occupied by tanks after the government ordered the military to break a miner's strike.
Blood coal
Both Colombian and United States unions say the wave of death and violence
is made possible by growing U.S. aid to the Colombian armed forces in its war against all
critics of the Colombian social and economic order, including unionists. As a results of
this high human cost and abuses in Colombian coal mines, human-rights activists have
labeled coal coming from Colombia as "blood coal".
There are many activists in Canada that want NSP to stop
importing all blood coal. But fuel costs are reflected in our power bills, so NSP must
find a way to balance social consciousness and the bottom line; and that is far from easy.
The Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network (ARSN) may be
taking a more attainable approach. The group is trying to enlighten both NSP and the
people of Atlantic Canada on the human and environmental costs behind our monthly power
bills.
The ARSN is hoping that increased international pressure and
education will get NSP to force its Colombian suppliers to improve human rights at their
operations and in the communities that surround the mines. The ARSN is not against the
importing of coal, but if coal is to be purchased from Colombia, it must be done in
conditions that don't involve the violation of human rights and must be obtained from
sources with basic respect for the environment, and for labour rights.
Our history, our connection
The proud people of Cape Breton have a profound link to the coal mining way of life
and we should be able to relate to those miners in Colombia. Nova Scotian coal has also
been at the heart of the most corrupt and reckless aspects of the politics we have mostly,
but not entirely, left behind.
The long history of coal mining in Nova Scotia has also been
plagued with its dark moments, at times the term "blood coal" could have applied
to our coal mines. From times when miners died on a regular basis, leaving behind grieving
families to fend for themselves and no one had to answer for the death of a worker, to the
death of 26 miners, when a methane gas explosion ripped through the Westray mine.
Many generations of Cape Breton families have broke their
backs hauling coal to the light of day. Fathers pass the legacy to their sons and each new
generation would spawn the next breed of miners. Coal mining was once our way of life, and
so were the tragic tales of anguish and despair that would be passed on like family
heirlooms.
Just how many more lives would have been lost if unions
hadn't stepped in and pressured the mining companies to improve working conditions in our
mines? How many relatives would we be without today if there wasn't someone willing to
risk their own safety by putting the safety of others first? Where would we be if others
had turned their backs and ignored the plight of our ancestors?
It is very ironic that so many coal mines in our area have
been closed down because of the availability of cheap coal from Colombia. Local mines
could not compete with those multinational operations and thousands of Cape Bretoners were
thrown out of work. And while entire local communities are devasted because of the loss of
such big industries, we contract out coal production to far-off lands and buy from mines
implicated in human rights abuses.
The Donkin mine
Earlier this year, Cape Breton's link to the abuse in Colombia made a more direct
connection. In December 2005, the provincial government granted the Donkin Mine to
Australia's AustirXstrata Coal, a subsidiary of the Swiss-based mining company Xstrata. In
February 2006, the Donkin Mine's new owner purchased a one-third share of the El Cerrejón
Norte mine in Colombia.
Unions in Australia have been very critical when it comes to
Xstrata protecting itself from liability in worker's deaths. After three managers of
AustirXstrata Coal were found guilty in the drowning of four workers at one of it
collieries, Xstrata responded to the convictions by seeking to change existing Australian
occupational health and safety laws so that employer's are protected against criminal
prosecution for workplace deaths. The company's Australian union has threatened to shut
down the mining industry in the province of New South Wales if Xstrata succeeds in its
landmark challenge.
Given the history of anti-union activities and violation of
human rights of people living in mining regions, Nova Scotians should be concerned with
the province's decision to award the Donkin Mine to Xstrata. Not only has this decision
further linked Nova Scotia to human rights abuses in Colombia, it has also placed mine
workers and communities in Cape Breton on a collision course with a mining company that
has proven itself to be ruthless in its pursuit of profit.
Eyes wide open
For many years, we have lived a rather isolated life and rarely did we see
the violence our way of life can foster in other parts of the world. However, we can no
longer afford to isolate ourselves from the social and political problems that endanger
other people throughout the world. If our way of life is built on systematic exploitation
and outright murder, it can only last for so long. We can not ignore or benefit from the
atrocities and human rights violations that are commonplace against both unionist and the
inhabitants of Colombia.
Maritime residents must take a firm stand against the
appalling and intolerable situation in Colombia. A situation that is the direct result of
greediness for the all-mighty dollar and a pitfall of globalization at its worse. We
must demand that Nova Scotia Power pressure the owners of the coal mines in Colombia and
the Colombian government to abide by established international human rights and labour
standards as demanded by the National Mineworkers' Union of Colombia.
We need to do everything we can to improve the conditions at
mines and communities in Colombia and stop one of the hemisphere's worst humanitarian
disasters. It is important for us to understand that our demand for low cost coal has a
direct consequence on what happens to workers and homeowners in Colombia. It is time for
us to shut the door on the abuse, the atrocities, the manipulations and murders. As
Canadians, we can not continue to allow people in Colombia to be assassinated, massacred,
or disappear in order for new coal mines to be opened or for existing mines to be operated
under conditions that are completely unfavourable to our nation.
The cost of Colombian coal must be measured in more than
just dollars, the lives of many Colombian unionists and miners depend on our grasping this
reality. Our province, our homes and our lives are fueled by other people's misery; the
cost is too high.
The views expressed in the commentary
are those of Robert Chant, and not necessarily supported by Breton Local.
SOURCES USED IN THIS ARTICLE:
________________:
- Blood on the coal; The
Daily News, March 27, 2006.
Arsenault, Chris:
Bacon, David:
Campbell, Colin:
Flinn, Brian:
Lack, Larry:
Leech, Garry:
Long, Stephen:
Markey, Andrea:
Massinon, Stephane:
Neatby, Stuart:
Simpson, Jeffrey:
- Colombian farmer trying to alert NSP to ruthless antics of
mining company; The Chronicle-Herald; March 27, 2006.
- Colombian Tells Tale of
Miners' Terror; The Chronicle-Herald, March 22, 2005.
Surette, Ralph:
- Dirty coal stories on the homefront; The Chronicle-Herald,
April 30, 2005.
- Globalization gone horribly wrong; The Chronicle-Herald,
April 4, 2005.
- The Dirty Story of Where We Get Our Coal, The
Chronicle-Herald; March 26, 2005.
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