well, things just get more and more interesting here in Calama! they are striking at the mine (well the subcontractors to be specific) their private employers denied them some kind of bonus and they are angry!!! i dont blame them. money is money. i am not sure exactly how involved codelco, the company for which i am also privately contracted, is-- but its a pretty exciting and jarring experience. I couldnt enter the mine through my normal gate (puerta 2) yesterday. there was a strangely long line at the gate and a lot of police who have never been present before. I had to wait for one of the employees, Julio, in the mine to smuggle me in so to speak. we entered through a new gate and i was denied there, but Julio managed to talk me into the mine. apparently the reason i couldnt enter through gate 2 is because they were burning tires and throwing rocks at the train track crossing!! my day was fairly normal once in the mine until i tried to leave and again could not exit through gate 2! there were seriously boulders in the road and rubble everywhere! i was taken through a different gate to exit and this time got to see a lot of the abandoned mine town, chuqicamata... im talking eerily vacant playgrounds, housing, and john f. kennedy elementary school. it was a bit like being in a science fiction novel!
when i safely met up with my driver, juan, whose charge it is to take me to and from the mine everyday, i found that the striking workers where gathered at the towns center to continue there cause. here all was peaceful and i picked up a paper of the striking group listing their grievances. this morning, i was again denied at gate 2. I waited for Julio to again come and get me and take me into a new gate, but he was not allowed to leave the mine... it seems that the police are hosing down the miners and it is considered too dangerous for anyone to leave or enter! when i returned to Calama there were more protesters this time marching in the street. such a day! no worries, im safe, though we dont know how long the strike will last. its an interesting position as an outsider to chilean culture and a subcontractor of codelco. i work with some of the highest people in the company, however they seemed pretty unaffected by the strike.
i guess i dont really know how to evaluate this strike, but it seems that there will be more news to report from behind the front lines soon.
