[Politics] "The Government did not believe us": The 26 FTC unions that coordinated for the national stoppage of Codelco

[FNX Magokiler]

"A federation exists in this country, today we have all of Codelco paralyzed and that shows that there is still strength in the union world," said the president of the Federation of Copper Workers (FTC), Amador Pantoja, this morning.

As the leaders of the Federation of Copper Workers (FTC) had announced for days, they achieved something that had not been seen for years and coordinated all their unions to carry out a national strike at Codelco, which began today in all the divisions of the state company, in rejection of the announcement of the progressive closure of the Ventanas smelter. The foregoing after a string of poisoning episodes that exacerbated the crises that the Quintero-Puchuncaví area has dragged on for years. In fact, this Monday a new episode of these characteristics was reported, with at least 20 people affected in the sector, a day in which Ventanas has not been operating as a result of the stoppage.

The main visible face of this strike has been Amador Pantoja, president of the FTC. "There is a Federation in this country, today we have all of Codelco paralyzed and that shows that there is still strength in the union world," he said this morning. "We represent approximately 14,000 workers, but there are around 30,000 or 35,000 workers from contractor companies, bordering on the 50,000 workers detained at their jobs,"

 

 

he said, stressing "the government did not believe us." According to Pantoja, since The Executive "did not want to see what capacity we have to convene and we are showing them that we workers are united, we are in a cause that we believe is fair". Even from the National Mining Society (Sonami) they also highlighted the call that this strike has had in the main copper producer in the world. And it is that for decades this level of coordination has not been seen to paralyze among the members of the FTC, to which the president of the National Mining Society (Sonami), Diego Hernández, referred. "The Federation of Copper Workers has been quite divided for the last couple of years, a little more, and perhaps this situation will unite them again and we will see," the president of Sonami told Tele13 Radio. In that sense, he stated that "this strike is not only a test for the Windows issue, it is a test for the strength of Codelco's Federation of Copper Workers, if they are able, effectively, to strike," he added. "The federation has been very biased and not very united, so maybe this will catalyze the union of the Codelco unions again," he said. In total, there are 122 union leaders deployed in all the divisions of the copper company, who belong to the 26 unions that make up the FTC. Here is the detail of these:

 

 

https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2022/06/22/1064787/detalle-siindicatos-paro-codelco.html