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Last Update: July 16, 2008
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- Paper Pulp Mills - Uruguay
- Corporate Accountability and Human Rights
- Climate Change and Human Rights
Another Worker Dies at Botnia Mill in Uruguay
February 9, 2008. Fray Bentos Uruguay. The string of fatal accidents and severe injury at Botnia´s controversial pulp mill on the Argentine-Uruguayan border continues. Another worker, Pedro Molina, age 32, fell 100 feet to his death yesterday, apparently due to an unsafe scaffolding unit.
This is second reported death this last year at the mill. However, several other accidents have occured including severe injury, amputations, serious illness, and other health related injuries attributed to poor and unsafe working conditions.
On occasion, Uruguayan worker unions have gone on strike to protest unsafe working conditions at the Botnia mill. The pulp mill company, by order of CEO Erkii Varis ( who had promissed excelent Finnish working ethics which the company refers to as “the Botnian Way”), instead accelerated construction early last year in a rush to finish the mill before an International Court of Justice verdict might order its dismantling.
The acceleration resulted in sloppy management, poor safety controls, and ultimately serious death and injury, which the CEO and communications staff at Botnia claim are the fault of contractors, not Botnia. The worker that died yesterday was reportedly putting last minute finishings to the mill.
The Botnia mill is illegal, alledges Argentina, unduly placed at a poor site placing natural resources and local livelihoods at risk.
Already, tourism operators in the mill´s vicinity are having problems attracting the normal flow of tourists, while local schools, and residents complain of foul odors, vomiting caused by the stench, trembling , and other industrial impacts caused by the mill´s operation.
Local communities and other stakehodlers in both countries massively and overwhelmingly oppose the mill. An international road block that went up on the eve of a World Bank vote to finance the Finnish company´s project, on November 20th 2006, is still in place nearing 500 consecutive days in protest, the largest protest ever against a World Bank-IFC financed project.
More Information
For more information contact:
Jorge Daniel Taillant
jdtaillant@cedha.org.ar
