In Peru, GMexico has been forced to pay millions of dollars to fix their contamination of water and air and in Chile, they had been accused of developing a mining complex in indigenous land
The National Mining Union informed that two world union federations with 45 million workers as their affiliates, and four Norway unions, requested to the Council on Ethics of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund to be detach from their assets in the mining conglomerate GMexico due to the alleged violations to labor and environmental rights.
In a press release the Mining Union indicated that the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers" Unions (ICEM) and the International Metalworkers Federation (FITIM) sent a letter requesting to remove their stock to the Council of Ethics which is in charge of the responsible supervision of the investments of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, the second biggest pension fund in the world.
In the letter, they explain that GMexico is accused of violating labor rights, of environmental destruction and fraud to their shareholders. They also request to withdraw their stock from Southern Copper, subsidiary of the Mexican mining company.
“We support this action in the name of the Mexican Union workers In order to call attention upon the extreme abuses GMexico has done and to request the Council Of Ethics to rue out GMexico as an investors according to the very high standards of the Pension Fund and the Norwegian Legislation” said Arve Bakke, President of the Fellesforbundet union.
“The welfare of future generations on Norway should not be invested on companies that systematically attack unions and damage the environment as GMexico has done” he added.
For his part, Manfred Warda, General Secretary of ICEM, indicated that they have mining unions on about 60 countries and that they had never seen a behavior as the one shown by GMexico anywhere before.
The evident attempt of GMexico to crush the National Mining Union and all its violations to the workers rights to freely associate and collectively negotiate as defined by the International Labor Organization, are the main arguments established in the letter in order to remove their investment on the Mexican mining company.
Meanwhile, Jryki Raina, general Secretary of FITIM, said that the illegitimate practices of GMexico, unfortunately supported by the corrupt Mexican government, include the confiscation of the assets of the union, trying to replace the legitimate union for one chosen by the company, and launching a never-ending repression campaign against the Union’s leaders.
In August 2007, GMexico along with the government forced the workers of 8 mines to join a union sponsored by the company using an “election” system where the workers had to vote publicly and in front of their employer. One of the union’s leaders has been in jail without bail since December 2008. And there are quite believable allegations that GMexico is responsible for the violent deaths of two of its employees.
Despite these allegations the miners continue to negotiate throughout the country salary increases that double the salary top imposed by the government, which the unions believe us the main motivation for the strikes of GMexico. One should really point out that the miners have labor relations with n confrontation whatsoever with most of the employers and they have close to 70 collective contracts with multi national employers such as Goldcorp, Bombardier and Arcelor Mittal.
The company is accused of several violations against health and security in the mine Pasta de Conchos, where 65 workers died in an explosion on 2006, and in the copper mine at Cananea, where the workers are on strike since July 2007.
Research on the smelting operations on GMexico illuminate the embarrassing environmental report of the company, where we can see that abnormal levels of toxic minerals such as leas, zinc, copper, cadmium, mercury, magnesium were found among the people in general, including high levels of arsenic and cadmium among children
In Peru, GMexico has been forced to pay hundreds of million of dollars to fix their contamination of water and air. In Chile, the company has been accused of developing a mining complex in indigenous land without requesting a permit from the natives or without fulfilling an evaluation of the environmental damage.
According to the sources quoted by the Unions that wrote the letter, the expense for the shareholders of GMexico for their labor practices surpass the 3 billion dollars which is above the hundreds of million required to fix the environmental destruction of the company at Peru. The group was condemn by a court n the U.S. o 2009 for omitting fraud to shareholders in a subsidiary they completely own. Another of its subsidiaries has been alleged to be involved in drug traffic.
The Covalence Ethical Quotation system, which finds out on the ethical reputation of global companies located GMexico on the 573 place of a total of 581 companies on 2009.
The labor unions and federations requesting to remove their investments, adds the National Mining Union, anticipate that the council of Ethics will investigate in depth the received information and will make a convenient decision to remove the investment (El Semanario Agencia, ESA)
The National Mining Union informed that two world union federations with 45 million workers as their affiliates, and four Norway unions, requested to the Council on Ethics of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund to be detach from their assets in the mining conglomerate GMexico due to the alleged violations to labor and environmental rights.
In a press release the Mining Union indicated that the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers" Unions (ICEM) and the International Metalworkers Federation (FITIM) sent a letter requesting to remove their stock to the Council of Ethics which is in charge of the responsible supervision of the investments of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, the second biggest pension fund in the world.
In the letter, they explain that GMexico is accused of violating labor rights, of environmental destruction and fraud to their shareholders. They also request to withdraw their stock from Southern Copper, subsidiary of the Mexican mining company.
“We support this action in the name of the Mexican Union workers In order to call attention upon the extreme abuses GMexico has done and to request the Council Of Ethics to rue out GMexico as an investors according to the very high standards of the Pension Fund and the Norwegian Legislation” said Arve Bakke, President of the Fellesforbundet union.
“The welfare of future generations on Norway should not be invested on companies that systematically attack unions and damage the environment as GMexico has done” he added.
For his part, Manfred Warda, General Secretary of ICEM, indicated that they have mining unions on about 60 countries and that they had never seen a behavior as the one shown by GMexico anywhere before.
The evident attempt of GMexico to crush the National Mining Union and all its violations to the workers rights to freely associate and collectively negotiate as defined by the International Labor Organization, are the main arguments established in the letter in order to remove their investment on the Mexican mining company.
Meanwhile, Jryki Raina, general Secretary of FITIM, said that the illegitimate practices of GMexico, unfortunately supported by the corrupt Mexican government, include the confiscation of the assets of the union, trying to replace the legitimate union for one chosen by the company, and launching a never-ending repression campaign against the Union’s leaders.
In August 2007, GMexico along with the government forced the workers of 8 mines to join a union sponsored by the company using an “election” system where the workers had to vote publicly and in front of their employer. One of the union’s leaders has been in jail without bail since December 2008. And there are quite believable allegations that GMexico is responsible for the violent deaths of two of its employees.
Despite these allegations the miners continue to negotiate throughout the country salary increases that double the salary top imposed by the government, which the unions believe us the main motivation for the strikes of GMexico. One should really point out that the miners have labor relations with n confrontation whatsoever with most of the employers and they have close to 70 collective contracts with multi national employers such as Goldcorp, Bombardier and Arcelor Mittal.
The company is accused of several violations against health and security in the mine Pasta de Conchos, where 65 workers died in an explosion on 2006, and in the copper mine at Cananea, where the workers are on strike since July 2007.
Research on the smelting operations on GMexico illuminate the embarrassing environmental report of the company, where we can see that abnormal levels of toxic minerals such as leas, zinc, copper, cadmium, mercury, magnesium were found among the people in general, including high levels of arsenic and cadmium among children
In Peru, GMexico has been forced to pay hundreds of million of dollars to fix their contamination of water and air. In Chile, the company has been accused of developing a mining complex in indigenous land without requesting a permit from the natives or without fulfilling an evaluation of the environmental damage.
According to the sources quoted by the Unions that wrote the letter, the expense for the shareholders of GMexico for their labor practices surpass the 3 billion dollars which is above the hundreds of million required to fix the environmental destruction of the company at Peru. The group was condemn by a court n the U.S. o 2009 for omitting fraud to shareholders in a subsidiary they completely own. Another of its subsidiaries has been alleged to be involved in drug traffic.
The Covalence Ethical Quotation system, which finds out on the ethical reputation of global companies located GMexico on the 573 place of a total of 581 companies on 2009.
The labor unions and federations requesting to remove their investments, adds the National Mining Union, anticipate that the council of Ethics will investigate in depth the received information and will make a convenient decision to remove the investment (El Semanario Agencia, ESA)
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