Worker's Collective for a Just Transition

On February 4, 2021, the companies of the Prodeco Group, a subsidiary of the Swiss transnational Glencore, announced the return of the mining titles and the closure of their mining operations (exploitations) in the “Calenturitas” and “La Jagua” mines in northern Colombia. A few weeks later, “Carbones del Cerrejón” began a process of reducing 450 jobs through what the company described as “voluntary retirement”. The multinationals alleged the unstable behavior of prices and the infeasibility of the business, increased by the global crisis resulting from the pandemic.

These decisions have accelerated a phenomenon that unions and civil society organizations in the Colombian departments of La Guajira and Cesar have been warning about for several years: the possible decline in coal mining activities in the region. Workers in the face of a probable economic and social earthquake have repeatedly demanded that dialogue tables be implemented with all the actors involved - Government, companies and workers - to generate routes and strategies that guarantee, in any scenario of changes, that acquired rights are respected in collective agreements and the labor commitments acquired by the companies are fulfilled.

Unions are alarmed by a withdrawal from Colombia of these large companies without reaching agreements with workers and communities, leaving behind thousands of families who earn their livelihood from the mine, hundreds of workers with health problems due to extractive work of coal and a region whose economic dependence is concentrated on mining. It is estimated that, for example, Prodeco moves around 40% of the GDP of the Cesar region and the multinational Carbones del Cerrejón, 43% of the economy of the department of La Guajira.

Given the serious labor and economic impacts that are already being felt, the workers' organizations, with the support of CNV Internationaal, decided to establish an autonomous union coordination space; the COLLECTIVE OF WORKERS FOR THE JUST TRANSITION.

The group of workers seeks to minimize the negative impacts that these changes could generate on workers and their families and to ensure that labour rights are respected. In addition to becoming an essential voice that contributes to generating a transition that guarantees a sustainable present and future for the citizens of these regions.

Humanity is moving towards a reduction in carbon emissions, but the higher cost of that energy transition does not have to be paid by the workers of the sector and the communities that have hosted these mining operations, because government policies have always aimed for these regions to depend entirely on the extractive sector.

It is for this reason that the group

 “Demands that the Colombian authorities assume their responsibilities for the defence of citizens affected by questionable, if not illegal, business decisions and asks the judicial authorities to act in favour of the defence of the fundamental rights of workers. The populations in La Guajira  and El Cesar are on their own with no one to defend them."

Given the effects that the energy transition process is generating in Colombia, which includes the closure of mines or the paralysis of activities in the coal sector, the main mining unions decided to join together to ensure that labour human rights are guaranteed in a context of a fair social transition.

Sintracarbón 

Sintracerrejon

Sintradrummond

Sintradem 

Sintramienergética