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Campaign victory against multinational mining company

Carl | 01.02.2012 09:09

Residents and activists in La Rioja province of Argentina are celebrating today after Canadian mining company Osisko bowed to pressure and has agreed to close its proposed mine in the province. Now the fight begins to secure compensation for the workers there.

Hundreds of people protested at the Canadian embassy in Buenos Aires last week, and at the Canadian High Commission in London over the weekend saying that the Famatina project would pollute the environment.

Local residents, supported by Greenpeace and others have carried out a number of actions including barricading the main road leading to the site, a blockade which still remains in place. On Thursday, demonstrators marched on the governor's office in La Rioja, demanding that Governor Luis Beder Herrera listen to their demands to stop the project and pay people who have been attracted to the area by the promise of jobs in the mine.

The campaign now turns to securing compensation for the workers who had been promised jobs by Osisko if the mine had gone ahead, shamefully they are being offered nothing right now and have been told that because the mine will not now open they have no compensation rights.

Carl

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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Did the people who wanted the jobs support you ?

01.02.2012 10:02

I'm not impressed by the way this campaign was carried out or the results. Trying to blame a mining company for failure to compensate people that your campaign has made unemployed is particularly disingenuous. They had never employed these people, they were simply attracted to the region because they knew that a new mine would give them a chance of a job, a chance that has now gone because of your actions.

I did a bit of research and the Canadian company had agreed with the government a wage structure that offered a miner a salary three times the national average for comparable work in Argentina, most of the workers who moved to the town were recently laid off coal miners from the Mendoza region whose mine was exhausted. The mine was in a region already heavily indistrialised so no new disruption was expected and the

What's worse is that this company was exactly the sort of socially responsible one that we need in industry. In March 2008, Osisko created Le Fonds Essor Malartic Osisko in Canada, a 3 million Dollar fund to be used in support of Malartic economic development projects, public facilities and infrastructure. Also, a project follow-up committee was established to oversee the operation and bring up any concerns the community might have such as those regarding the environment. Its members were chosen with the intent that the committee be completely independent of the Company to avoid conflicts of interest. It has subsequently received much praise from the First Nation Canadians whose land the development is on for returning the mine area to its previous state and supporting the local community during the working period.

Why I don't work with Greenpeace

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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Of course they must pay

01.02.2012 10:10

Stinking scum mining company bails out and leaves employees with nothing !!!!

Make the bastards pay, keep up the pressure.

Don't give up

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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Compensation

01.02.2012 10:16

>>>> securing compensation for the workers who had been promised jobs by Osisko if the mine had gone ahead<<<<<<

Not sure of the thinking here, are you saying these were people who were not employed yet but had traveled to the town in the hope of a job because they heard the mine was opening and now you think they should get compensation because your campaign caused the company to pull out of opening the mine ? Do you not understand that YOU have at least a moral responsibility for the situation these people find themselves in ?

Greenpeace have history with campaigns like this, their campaign against the Belo Monte dam also includes a 'demand' for compensation for the local builders who will not not get the contracts they had been promised.

confused of Tunbridge Wells

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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Truth hard to take ?

01.02.2012 10:21

Looks like the Indy mods were not happy to see me lay out a few facts concerning this case. Let's all pretend this was a success and the big bad mining company was the villain here.

Fools.

Why I don't work with Greenpeace

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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Behind the 'success'

01.02.2012 10:22

 https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/02/491759.html?c=all

The full story is here not the edited version

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