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Strikers at Hai Van Tunnel building site return to work

(Date: August 10, 2002. Source: Vietnam News)

THUA THIEN-HUE — Striking workers at the Hai Van Pass tunnel project resumed work on Thursday, after a three-day strike was resolved through negotiations with company management.

Work on the northern section of the project, which is being undertaken by Japan’s Hazama Company and the local Civil Engineering Corporation No. 6 (Cienco 6), was slowed considerably after workers walked off the job, complaining of dangerous working conditions and reduced pay.

"We went on strike to protest the contractor’s decision to increase our working hours, thus lowering our pay," said a striker, who declined to be named.

The contractor recently added a one hour, unpaid break into the workers’ shifts in order to move them away from mine blasting areas. As part of an agreement reached between the joint venture management and the workers’ union, the workers will now be paid for the one-hour break.

Striking workers also complained that they were being required to move further into the tunnel and were being exposed to increasingly dangerous conditions, without being provided with proper safety clothing and equipment.

"Work safety is not good enough when we are working in a tunnel 1.5km underground and are exposed to the smoke from mining explosives, vehicles and machinery," said Nguyen Ba Du, a welder on the construction site.

On Tuesday, the joint venture’s management issued a notice calling for the 69 striking workers to return to the job, saying they would consider employee demands if they were put forward in writing, through union representatives.

The strikers countered that the grass-roots Labour Union organisation had not been established at the construction site and so workers were compelled to defend their demands on their own.

After meeting with the joint venture’s management, Pham Van Duoc, a representative of Thua Thien-Hue Labour Union, said that a grassroots labour union would soon be set up at the construction site.

A comment box will also be placed at the construction site in order to collect workers’ complaints and requests.

The construction of the Hai Van Pass tunnel project began in August 2000, and the Cienco 6-Hazama joint venture has so far excavated 1,412m of the proposed 3,850m main tunnel. The tunnel is part of a crucial stretch of National Highway No.1A linking Thua Thien Hue Province with Da Nang.

The Hai Van Pass tunnel project is being funded by a US$251 million investment, 85 per cent of which has come from the Japanese government’s official development assistance (ODA) loans, which are provided through the Japan Bank for International Co-operation. — VNS

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