Indefinite strikes brought Drummond’s coal mining operations to a halt in Colombia, putting further pressure on the country’s economy amid a growing wave of labor actions.
The July 22 Global Day of Action Against Open-Pit Mining, most widely observed in the Andean nations, also saw coordinated protests in NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada.
The union movement held its first big general strike in three decades in a bid to bring labor demands to the spontaneous protest movement that swept Brazil in June.
Port workers and copper miners joined students in the latest marches for free education, while the media and government focused on violence by a few of the marchers.
Chinese-owned mining companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo are contributing to a culture of human rights abuses, Amnesty International reports.
Turkey’s DISK labor federation is calling for international solidarity as Prime Minister Erdogan declared its general strike in support of the protest movement “illegal.”
Bolivian mine workers ended a two-week strike when the government agreed to a pension hike, but the episode may represent a break between Evo Morales and COB labor federation.
Activists established a protest vigil outside Lima’s Hotel Marriott as the 17th round of negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership opened in the Peruvian capital.
Haiti saw unusually large May 1 marches this year as unions joined together in the capital and assembly and agricultural workers protested in other cities.
Some 80,000 Salvadorans took to the streets on May Day to oppose privatization initiatives mandated by the US State Department’s Partnership for Growth program.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, an angry May Day march descended on the city center with drums, red flags, and chants of “Hang the killers, Hang the Factory Owners!”
Teacher protests against a US-style education “reform” program turned violent in Guerrero as masked men attacked the offices of several political parties.
