Show Of Strength By Mines Workers Of Cerro Vanguardia Gold Mine

Show of Strength by Mines Workers of Cerro Vanguardia gold mine

ARGENTINA - Caleta Oliva, (PSI)

17th April 2006

Workers of the mines Cerro Vanguardia (http://www.anglogold.com/Country/Argentina/Argentina.htm) in the southern Argentina province of Santa Cruz decided to initiate a show to strength upon failing to obtain responses to the petition they presented the previous Monday.

The show of force consists in stopping all collaboration with the company and a cease of activities. "We are not negociating because we do not have the capacity to negotiate, all we did was bring up a petition to the company with the things that we believe that are just and that we need, we are not asking for anything ridiculous," they emphasized.

In the document, the workers asked for a new salary structure within the catagories in which the salaries are are between $1,800 and $2,500 pesos (U$600-$850) in the highest catagories. "We don't know why they are politicizing this as if it were war, this is simply a petition that we made to the company and we hoped for a little more good faith on the part of everyone."

On their part, the government of the province of Santa Cruz sent 21 troops of the gendarmeria, as well as provencial police, to the gold mining operation of Cerro Vanguardia, located 150 kilometers from the city of Puerto San Julián. The forces, who arrived yesterday at 6pm, were sent with the objective to guarantee that the workers did not block the access roads to the mining encampment.