Defiant union members shut down Surinam’s bauxite mines in a wildcat strike

Caribbean News Briefs

PARAMARIBO, Surinam — Defiant union members shut down Surinam’s bauxite mines in a wildcat strike Thursday, leaving part of the capital city without electricity and water.

Bauxite workers, defying their union leadership, joined workers at the Oarnam aluminum plant who walked out Wednesday and refused to work at bauxite mine and alumina smelters.

Electric utility workers shut off power from the generators at the Afobaka dam, leaving 20 percent of Paramaribo and its environs without power. Water was shut off to those areas because there was no power to run water pumps, officials said.

The strikes were held without the support of union leaders.

Sources close to the leadership said it feared a repeat of a national work stoppage last year that led the military government to torture and execute 15 prominent critics, including the leader of the Moederbond, Surinam’s largest union.

Workers are protesting plans to raise taxes next year.

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https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/12/22/Caribbean-News-Briefs/3957440917200/

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Date:
December 22, 1983
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Press
Years:
1983
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META DATA
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