The workers – who walked out of the mine on February 7 to push for higher wages and improved health benefits – met with Cerrejon management for negotiations over the weekend. But according to Bloomberg , company and union officials were unable to agree on a time limit for wage talks.
Cerrejon was willing to send the dispute to arbitration but the union would prefer a negotiated settlement to an arbitration panel, said Igor Diaz, president of the coal workers union Sintracarbon, in a statement.
Neither side spoke to the other during the first week of the strike, the first at Cerrejon in 22 years. But Friday saw Sintracarbon and company officials start the short-lived negotiations, which were suspended by Sunday.
If no deal is reached within 60 days, the dispute will be sent to an arbitration panel, whose decision is binding.
Significant production, transport and fulfilment issues could also arise from the stoppage, further complicating existing problems in the Andean nation, following an environmental inquiry into Drummond that has halted work at its shipping port.
According to Reuters, the combined loss from the stoppages could be as great as 85% of Colombia’s daily coal production.
Cerrejon is owned by Xstrata, Anglo American and BHP Billiton.
Colombia is the world’s fourth-largest coal exporter.
It produced 87 million metric tons in 2011, falling short of a 100Mt goal, in part because of a 25-day coal railway strike that forced output target cutbacks.
