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After 91 days of strike in Cerrejón, the new Collective Labor Agreement was signed with Sintracarbón, which will be in effect from July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2023.
This will allow the operation of the mine to restart as of tomorrow, December 1, after a cycle of direct conversations that lasted six days and which it carried out after mediation by the Ministry of Labor and the Commission for the Agreement on Wage Policies and Labor.
Sintracarbón highlighted that the structure of historical benefits is preserved, such as the fact that Christmas and holiday bonuses maintain the salary connotation, the item of increase for efficiency and productivity is also maintained, which is 2%, as well as the readjustment for CPI of work travel expenses, food vouchers for Bogotá workers, school aid, education and special needs, funeral aid, postgraduate scholarships, aid and travel expenses for medical treatment.
In the same way, the early retirement bonus for old-age pension, the regulatory aspects and the rights of the union organization continue.
In addition, as central points that were overcome through this agreement, the conversion of one hundred fixed-term contracts to indefinite was achieved, distributed between 30 for technicians and 70 for positions other than technicians.
Likewise, 200 workers who had terminated their fixed-term contracts were re-hired.
In the new Convention, the structure of Article 42 regarding land transportation is preserved, in terms of daily transportation throughout La Guajira and Valledupar, and Barranquilla, 700 housing loans and modification of the most favorable rate, with opening of a loan to Barranquilla without conditioning and salary adjustment by CPI for the entire term.
$ 10,775,000 will be delivered between Signature Bonus and advance of 7 quarters of the Special Bonus
Cerrejón affirmed that with the signing of this agreement, “workers and their families will continue to receive the excellent benefits that have been built between the company and the union over more than 35 years of history. In addition, it will allow to continue supporting the development of La Guajira and Colombia, by boosting the local, regional and national economy, at a time when the whole world faces great challenges ”.
Claudia Bejarano, president of the company, stated that “after going through the longest strike in our history, we must work more united than ever to continue building our future and be able to make our dreams and those of our families come true.”
He added that the challenges they have faced in 2020 were great, due to low coal prices, the reduction in demand worldwide and the pandemic caused by Covid-19.
“After the agreement reached, our priority now is to carry out a safe and responsible restart of operations. To make this possible, the contingency team, in addition to maintaining the assets during these months, has designed a plan that ensures compliance with strict security and control measures to protect the health of all our workers, ”he explained.
Bejarano said that although the operation is resumed with the same challenges that it had at the beginning of the year, “we are confident of having a world-class team that will help us overcome this situation.”
For his part, the president of Sintracarbón stated that “on behalf of this negotiating commission, we proudly highlight the level of resistance, strength, awareness of workers and support for their negotiation process and strike from fellow workers and their families. This process was never easy in the midst of so many adverse conditions, but only unity, organization and struggle led us to sign a collective labor agreement ”.
Through the Ministry of Labor, through the Vice Minister of Labor Relations and Inspection, Ligia Stella Chaves, Sintracarbón and Cerrejón agreed on November 24, a period of time of 30 calendar days, counted from the day after the lift the strike, to debate at technical tables about the new work shift.
“In addition, the parties do not renounce their interests on the issue, in such a way that the union has full freedom to continue expressing its position and oppose its implementation,” the union organization said.
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