Bail allowed to jailed Chilean union leaders

Press, 30 June 1983, Page 11

Bail allowed to jailed Chilean union leaders

NZPA-Reuter Santiago A Chilean judge yesterday had freed three leaders of the Confederation of Copper Workers who had been jailed a week ago on charges arising from an illegal strike in the vital industry, the union’s lawyer said.

Luis Eduardo Thayer said that the judge had granted bail to Hugo Estivales, vicepresident of the confederation and to two national officials, Raul Montecinos and Roberto Guerra. Four other national leaders remain in custody, including the union’s president, Mr Rodolfo Seguel, whose arrest after a day of protest against the military Government on June 14 triggered the copper strike and then a general strike which collapsed at the week-end.

Union officials from the giant Chuquicamata mine, the only one of the four divisions in the State-owned copper corporation (Codelco) which did not strike, yesterday met General Patricio Torres, head of Codelco, to ask that sacked strikers be reinstated. General Torres said afterwards that of the 4989 workers originally sacked for having obeyed the strike call, only 799 had not been taken on again. The confederation has almost 22,000 members, but these include workers in emergency services and company hospitals and offices, and nearly half are employed at Chuquicamata. According to General Torres’s figures, therefore, nearly half of all workers in the other three mines obeyed the strike call,

whereas at the time Codelco maintained that the response had been very poor.

The union officials also asked him to drop legal actions brought by the Government against the national leaders and more than 20 local officials, but they said afterwards that General Torres had told them the matter now rested with the courts. General Torres said, however, that he had arranged a meeting between the Chuquicamata officials and the Labour Minister, Mr Patricio Mardones, for today to discuss their grievances. Those dismissed by the company include 35 local union officials. The union said yesterday that the authorities were not allowing them to manage their unions’ bank accounts.