Mozambique: Minister Pale in Japan, reaffirms country's commitment to power generation projects
Strike at Vale Mozambique ends amidst tear gas and people in nearby school collapsing
8:11 CAT | 25 Feb 2016
In File Club of Mozambique
The strike by workers at the open-cast coal mine operated by the Brazilian company Vale in Moatize, in the western Mozambican province of Tete, ended on Friday, but the company has not yet released the details of its settlement with the strikers.
The strike, involving about 1,400 workers, broke out on 15 February, in protest against the company cutting an allowance known as the “Variable Remuneration” (RV), which is a form of profit sharing between the company and its work force.
The Vale-Mozambique management described the strike as “illegal”, and claimed that the RV is a bonus rather than part of the wages. Vale said a decision has been taken at its head office that no RV for 2015 would be paid to any Vale workers, anywhere in its global operations, “because the company did not achieve the minimum financial results required to trigger the payment”.
Cited by the Beira daily paper “Diario de Mocambique”, Vale press advisor Olivia Bravo said that all the strikers had gone back to work, and the mine resumed normal operations as of 20.00 on Friday.
“We shall give details about the consensus the two sides reached during the negotiations”, she promised. “But what is certain is that the strike is over”.
The final day of the strike saw an outbreak of violence, when strikers threw stones against other miners who had decided to work. According to Bravo, a unit of the riot police intervened and used tear gas to disperse the strikers.
The tear gas drifted into a nearby school causing several people there, both pupils and adults, to collapse.
Source: AIM
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