--Coal railway workers vote to end three-week strike, company
says
--Labor union calls vote 'illegal,' pledges strike will
continue
--Strike has halted more than half Colombia's coal exports
By Dan Molinski
BOGOTA--Hundreds of employees of Colombia's main railway who
have been on strike for three weeks, halting more than half of the
country's coal exports, voted Monday in favor of ending the walkout
and returning to work, the head of the railway said.
Nonetheless, labor union leaders late Monday pledged to keep the
strike alive, calling the vote illegal.
Peter Burrowes, president of the Fenoco railway, called for the
vote late last week, saying he believed the voting would prove that
most of the rank-and-file rail workers no longer supported the
union-led strike. The workers, he said, wanted to start earning a
paycheck again.
In a text message Monday to The Wall Street Journal, Burrowes
said that of the 624 railway employees, 347 sent in a vote Monday.
Of those, he said 12 of the votes came back blank while 335 voted
"in favor [of] arbitration, and stopping the strike and going back
to work."
The company needed for more than 50% to vote in favor of ending
the strike for it to pass, so the vote count achieves that
threshold. Burrowes said the coal trains could start operating
again by the end of the week, while an independent arbitration
court would resolve the labor dispute that led to the strike. The
workers were asking for higher wages and more benefits.
Felix Herrera, president of the Sintraime labor union, said the
voting Monday was "illegal" because it was organized by the
company, not the union. As such, he said the union has no plans to
return to work later this week, and would continue to strike. The
Sintraime union represents about one-third of the 624 railway
workers.
The Fenoco railway normally carries 160,000 metric tons of coal
daily from mines in Colombia's Cesar state to shipping ports on the
country's Atlantic coast.
The Fenoco railroad is owned by the coal companies that use its
lines to transport coal to the coast: Glencore International PLC
(GLNCY, GLEN.LN), Alabama-based Drummond and Goldman Sachs Group
Inc.'s (GS) local unit, CNR.
Due to the strike, the companies have been unable to meet some
of their deliveries, as inventories at the port ran dry more than a
week ago. Drummond, Colombia's second-largest coal producer, said
over the weekend it has had to "significantly" reduce production
since it has no way to transport the 80,000 tons of coal it
normally sent each day on the railway.
Colombia's is among the world's top coal exporters. The country
aims to produce around 100 million metric tons of coal this year,
although that target may be lowered due to the strike.
Write to Dan Molinski at dan.molinski@dowjones.com