Peruvian workers denounce anti-union practices by Glencore in Antapaccay mine

Union leaders of the organisation claim that since its founding in 2013, a year after the mine began operations, the union has been subjected to a sustained pattern of harassment. Among the most serious incidents are reported:

unjustified dismissals of affiliated workers, pressure to forcibly resign from the union, and the systematic denial of basic rights such as collective bargaining and strike action.

One of the most critical episodes occurred in November 2013, when several workers were dismissed after joining the union. The company offered reinstatement only if they renounced their union membership. As a result, 28 workers left the union, two were dismissed permanently and five refused to accept the anti-union status, initiating a legal action that ended in a favourable ruling a year later. By then, the union had been weakened.

In the years since, the company has maintained practices that continue to undermine freedom of association. Glencore has extended the benefits of agreements with financial bonuses to workers in exchange for not joining the union, a strategy that undermines union unity and promotes discrimination.

Despite these obstacles, the union has managed to strengthen its membership to 135 members.

In recent days, workers of the union SITRAMINA have raised their voices about activities of the company in which it promotes, in an alleged complicity with a minority union (SITRAN), the disaffiliation of its members through individual economic incentives. According to the complaint, on 4 June 2025 Glencore signed a collective bargaining agreement with SITRAN, which had recently modified its statutes to affiliate civil servant workers. As part of the agreement, the company granted bonuses of up to S/ 74,000 to non-unionised civil servant workers, conditional on their remaining outside other unions and not striking.

As evidenced by the workers, there are internal company documents that show that, after this agreement, the Human Resources Management communicated directly to the workers about a benefit and extended the deadline for payment until 31 July according to the collective agreement, including extending the bonuses to 12 August 2025, encouraging new incorporations to SITRAN and the disaffiliation of SITRAMINA and SUT.

Between June and July 2025 alone, SUT lost a large number of members and SITRAMINA reported 35 resignations, some of which were copied to managers and area supervisors.

The union leaderships point out that these actions constitute a violation of ILO Conventions 87 and 98, by granting benefits to exclusive membership of a minority union and undermining existing collective agreements. Furthermore, they question the transparency of the negotiations, as SITRAN was not sufficiently representative to sign agreements with general effects for the whole company.

From CNV Internationaal we express our deep concern about this persistent pattern of anti-union harassment, which violates Peruvian labour law and Glencore's international commitments on human rights and due diligence.