Hello delegations of the 3rd IMC, 1. the importance of the country reports With the reports on their country, the respective delegations from the different countries present the particular situation of the miners, the struggles, progress and problems of the miners' movement in their country to the other participants at the beginning of the conference.
The international union movement is calling for justice for the 42 miners who lost their lives in an explosion on 14 October, 2202, in Turkey’s Amasra district. Four mine workers are still in hospital in Istanbul , two of them in intensive care. In a joint mission to the region, IndustriALL Global Union assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan and IndustriAll Europe general secretary Luc Triangle met with branch and local trade union representatives.
Merry Christmas from local miners and miners wive's, wishing you a happy holiday from Uganda . Yours local miners plus miners wives
23.12.22
We, the International Coordination Group of the International Miners' Coordination, wish you a successful new year 2023. We look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to the 3rd International Miners' Conference 2023 in Thuringia/Germany from 30 August to 3 September 2023. Especially in these times, where brutal competition is carried out on the backs of the workers, the masses and especially us, the miners and our families, up to the acute danger of a World War III with nuclear weapons, we have to set a sign and push our unification forward and develop it higher.
We welcome that the ICOR has decided on such a solidarity campaign and would like to inform about this important campaign: In Iran, a nationwide workers' and people's uprising against the fascist Mullah regime is unfolding in more than 190 cities. "No struggle should ever remain alone" is the slogan of the ICOR and this is also the concern of the international miners' coordination.
For months, miners at the Vumbachikwe mine in Gwanda in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland South province have not received their wages. The miners and their families are protesting against the unpaid wages. Last week, about 500 miners' wives and their children blocked access to the gold mine. That is why the companions did not come to work.
An IndustriALL trade union network meeting on 8 September in Johannesburg urged Glencore to be consistent in implementing global policies that protected workers and human rights, community interests, and the environment. Glencore is amongst the multinational companies that are benefiting from the commodities boom linked to decarbonization.
IndustriALL Democratic Republic of the Congo council discussed Glencore’s broken promises to mineworkers at a meeting on 21 October. According to IndustriALL affiliates, Glencore has made no efforts to improve working conditions at its mining operations in the country. The union network meeting was held against the backdrop of cobalt’s role in the low carbon energy transition and the DRC’s strategic role in the battery supply chain.
GLENCORE has been active in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 2008. GLENCORE is present in the Democratic Republic of Congo with two companies, namely : MUTANDA MINING SARL (MUMI) and KAMOTO COPPER COMPANY (KCC) SA. Both are located near Kolwezi, in the Lualaba province, in the southern region. To date, GLENCORE has invested over US$7 billion in the development of MUMI and KCC.