VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Former Hecla Mining workers in El Callao say they're being kept in the dark over developments at the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) subsidiary Minerven's Block B where the Russian Agapov Group's Rusoro Mining has taken a 50% share in a new "socialist" mining company in joint venture with the Venezuelan government. Worker representatives say their concerns are deeper now since there was no broader agreement and although there was another meeting with Management on Friday they came away with little or nothing to show for the effort.It is generally recognized that local tensions have abated with many ex-employees still holding onto the belief that the new owners will ultimately come up trumps for the more than 300 families currently without jobs. The main concern is who is to pay labor liabilities abandoned by USA-Idaho-based Hecla Mining. It was believed that an agreement between Basic Industries & Mines (Mibam) Minister, Rodolfo Sanz and the Agapov/Rusoro Group had settled the issue but the list of those who should receive redundancy payments and other social welfare benefits grows longer and Agapov seems reluctant to come up with the immediate cash.
Meanwhile, the communities around El Callao must try to exist on "toasted cheese" (an expression meaning scraps and left-overs) with mouths to feed at home and no pay to live decently. Admittedly they had had to get used to "starvation wages" during the Hecla era but former Hecla employee Omar Fuenmayor says "the most serious problem is that we do not have money for anything, the prices go up and up ... there are seven of us at home ... three of us have jobs, but I have had to pull my son out of college and send him to work otherwise we simply could not make ends meet."
Agapov's operations manager Nestor Hernandez says that he is "very satisfied" with the reintegration of workers to the new socialist mining company and that the current workforce is undergoing training. "We are looking forward to making the company more productive and beneficial to the State and the private partnership ... but this transition can take us six months, which is quite a long period. We must train people on new equipment, reinforce the company structure, motivate people ... and there is always resistance to change. But we have to take it and give the employees incentives to work."
Rusoro's head of production at the Isidora mine, Miguel Contreras says work has already begun to comply with Healthy & Safety requirements in critical areas such as worker facilities and mine ventilation, both of which are almost finalized. "The reality, however, remains that even with the implementation of safety measures etc., the gold miners still want better pay, commensurate with their labors and that is why the Labor Inspectorate is involved in an attempt to mediate and prevent similar conflicts like we had with Hecla."
El Callao worker's expectations, however, must wait until next Wednesday when Mibam Minister Rodolfo Sanz is scheduled to attend a 9:00 a.m. meeting at the mine where it is hoped that he will give final approval to a 15 percent wage increase implicit with the new joint venture.
VHeadline Venezuela News
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Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.
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