Drummond workers end Colombia's longest coal strike

Drummond workers voted in favor of ending a 45-day strike at Drummond's La Loma and El Descanso coal mines, Colombia's longest coal strike in two decades. In return for ending the strike, Drummond agreed to an 8.5mn-peso (US$4,369) bonus for each worker, a 5% wage increase in the first year of the new agreement as well as education, health, housing and transportation benefits, local newspaper La República said. Impacting the local mining sector and the nation as a whole, Colombia's economy reportedly lost more than US$5mn a day during the strike.