The government spokesperson, Camila Vallejo, pointed out that the Executive will maintain dialogue with the workers of Codelco’s Ventanas Smelter, despite the fact that they have decided to initiate a national strike in protest at the plant’s closure.
Given this, the Secretary of State stated that “we respect labor and trade union rights to paralyze as a tool that workers deliberate and define autonomously, by the way we are and will continue to dialogue with all Codelco workers’ organizations”.
“The decision we made is correct, we cannot continue to put the health of children and communities at risk. Our commitment to end the sacrifice zones must begin to be fulfilled and the time has come for us to give signs in that direction. and this is not contradictory with the demands of the workers,” he added.
For Vallejo, “it cannot be and we do not conceive that the protection of health and the environment be placed in a dichotomy with labor demands, they talk, they go hand in hand. Therefore, we will dialogue with them as we are doing, even if they are unemployed”.
“We understand that of the main demands, there are already many that are accepted: that no one lose their source of employment, that we think not only of the direct workers, but also of their families, that we discuss the fair transition together with the workers” , he stated.
Asked for self-criticism about how the measure was announced, Vallejo said that “these decisions are made by the Codelco board, which is an autonomous company and, before announcing any person, they have to make the decision collectively. The commitment was that the first to be informed were the workers”
“Obviously, this is not enough, it requires more conversation. Given this decision, first, the conversation with the workers and parliamentarians that is being led by Minister Jackson and the Minister of Mining for the law that they have to authorize,” he declared.
“This is not overnight, because it has to comply with environmental regulations, the withdrawal of a company is not from one month to the next, it takes at least five years to dismantle the smelter,” he concluded.
