Olmedo miners dispute: gray smoke after meeting with the regional councilor for industry

Gray smoke after the meeting this morning on the dispute of the miners of Olmedo, whose contract with the IGEA (regional subsidiary) expires on November 30th. The meeting, held from 11 in video conference, was attended by the MSW of the miners, the territorial and regional trade unionists, on the other by the regional councilor for Industry Anita Pili.

It was essentially an interlocutory meeting. The so-called "proximity agreement", which expires on 30 November, will be extended until 31 December. After that, for the 26 miners of Olmedo, other contractual instruments will have to be sought, given that the proximity agreement, after 31 December 2021, is not technically renewable. The Olmedo mine, in which bauxite was extracted, has been stopped since 2015. It is still not safe and complete reclamation must be carried out. Unions and workers are looking further ahead, putting on the table not only new fixed-term contracts and instruments, but also stabilizations.

To be fair, the Region on the Olmedo mine has already put 6 million euros on the scales, thus showing the political will not to abandon the miners to their fate. But the dates of the projects and the methods of intervention are still worrying. "We take note of the political will expressed also this morning by the councilor for Industry Anita Pili - explains Emilio Fois, RSU and spokesman for the miners - Obviously the extension to December 31 is not enough for us. It is the after that worries us and we, as workers, we do not want to be discovered and we ask for certain guarantees. Most likely - he continues - there will be another technical table next week, in which we hope the stakes will be set for the restart of the reclamation and the certainty of other contractual instruments that will cover the miners starting from 1 January 2022. Our fear - he concludes - is that the times of politics often do not respect the needs of workers ".

At the end of this morning's meeting, the miners gathered in an assembly. The state of agitation proclaimed on Tuesday was lifted yesterday in view of today's meeting. The line that has emerged even today is to give confidence to regional institutions at the moment.