33 miners freed, but what happens now?

Over the last 30 hours, 33 Chilean miners were rescued from the San Jose copper and gold mine over 600 meters underground.

The rescue was absolutely amazing.  Family, friends and countrymen gathered at the site in Copiapo, Chile, and over a billion people around the world watched and waited as each man came up to deafening cheers.  According to cbc.ca, the rescue took only 22 hours and 39 minutes much quicker than the he original estimated time of 36 to 48 hours. 

But what happens now?  The mine collapsed because of poor conditions and lax safety standards.  This time the Chilean government and the mining company, San Esteban, can’t put a band aid on the problem and make it go away.  The whole world witnessed this ordeal, and the safety issues and overworked miners have become front and centre of the issue.

Now it’s time major public relations comes into play from the government and the San Esteban company.  In a cbc.ca story updated October 14 at 10:59 a.m., Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said, “This mine will definitely never open again.”  Pinera also acknowledged that his government will not allow safety issues to be ignored, and that the accident “will not go unpunished.  Those who are responsible will have to assume their responsibility.”

              

Great.  Pinera is beginning to restore his country’s faith in this ability to look out for THEIR best interests.  Talking the talk is not all Pinera’s been doing to restore his country’s faith in his government.  He’s fired top regulators, and created a commission to investigate the mine’s regulatory system and the San Jose mine collapse.  He’s also been at the site.  He’s talking with family, friends and miners; he’s working hard to be accessible to family members and the miners.  Pinera was also one of the first people to greet each miner after they came up.

So what has the San Esteban company done to build relationships?  From what I can see it’s not done much.  On its website there is a link to a small story, but no mention of the collapsed mine its news section.  Also company press releases can only been seen by logging in with a special username in password.  Not very open and transparent.

As President Pinera works to better protect Chilean workers the company that employs many of them remains silent.  Sooner or later the San Esteban company will have to issue something publicly.  As a president and his country look for answers, and 27 of the 33 rescued miners are suing the company for negligence and compensatory damages San Esteban better speak up soon.