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(Pittsburgh, Pa.) -- The United Steelworkers (USW) has sent letters protesting the May 3 shooting death of Chilean forestry worker Rodrigo Cisternas to President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, and to the fallen worker’s ultimate employer, Celulosa Arauco y Constitución SA – the largest forestry and pulp producing company in that country.
“The attack by police that killed Brother Cisternas and injured others was completely unwarranted,” said USW President Leo Gerard. “But it is the symptom of a labor law system there in which an employer has very little incentive to sit down and bargain a fair resolution to a labor dispute.”
Last Friday, the union’s Canadian National Office sent similar letters to President Bachelet and to the company. USW National Director for Canada Ken Neumann condemned the “barbaric action” by the Chilean police and the prolongation of the strike by Arauco. The USW’s Wood Council in Canada has long-standing fraternal ties with the National Confederation of Forest Workers of Chile (CTF), to which many of the striking workers belong.
On May 8, after a nine day strike, an agreement was reached between the company, its 87 contractors and union officials, that will see workers paid increases of 65 thousand pesos per month (approximately $125 US), based on a 45 hour regular work week. Low wages force many to work more than 60-70 hours per week. The lowest paid workers will see increases of over 40 per cent, while the average wage increase is approximately 20 per cent.
The company, like many major employers in Chile, employs most of its workers via third-party “independent” contractors. Nevertheless, over 8,000 workers, including sawmillers, loggers, truckers and seasonal silviculture workers, held Arauco responsible to make improvements to their wages and working conditions.
“The company had no way to end this dispute except to bargain an agreement covering these workers,” added Gerard.
Gerard’s letter to President Bachelet, urged a thorough and prompt investigation of the death of the worker and the police attack on the workers on strike outside the Celulosa Arauco pulp mill in Los Horcones, Arauco province. Gerard urged the president to consider reforms of Chile’s labor laws that would allow a more level playing field for collective bargaining.
The USW has 850,000 members in a variety of major industries in North America and the Caribbean, and represents 170,000 paper and wood workers in the United States and Canada.
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