Unionists from Europe visit Belo Horizonte to speak in favor of the victims of Brazil’s biggest humanitarian tragedy – The Brumadinho dam collapse 

The German company Tüv Süd, which issued a stability report for the Brumadinho dam (MG) which collapsed in 2019, is being the subject of a lawsuit in Germany for moral damages as a result of the tragedy that caused the death of 272 people. The first hearing against the company is scheduled for September 19, in Munich, and will be attended by relatives of victims of the tragedy. 

As a result of an international solidarity articulation in favor of the victims of the dam failure, the secretary of Department of Political and International Affairs of the Mining Industrial Union, Chemistry and Energy (IGBCE), from Germany, Michael Wolters, and the director of Chemistry and Pharmaceuticals, Pulp and Paper of IndustriALL Global Union, Tom Grinter, were in Belo Horizonte to participate in a press conference on the 7th of July, to talk about the importance of the case against Tüv Süd.

Forerunner of the solidarity network, the IGBCE promoted a mobilization in Germany with the aim of supporting the victims of the tragedy in Brazil and providing international action in Munich against the company Tüv Süd. In the lawsuit, the company is accused of having produced, knowingly and willfully, a positive declaration of stability – Declaration of Stability Condition (DCE) – of the B1 dam of the Córrego do Feijão Mine, owned by the mining company Vale S.A. Tüv Süd certified the dam as safe and stable in September 2018, although it did not have the necessary characteristics to do so, and four months later, on January 25, 2019, the dam collapsed.

In order to hold Tüv Süd responsible for the moral damage suffered by those affected in the dam failure, the IGBCE, the law firm Advocacia Garcez and the German lawyers Dr. Rüdiger Helm and Dr. Ulrich von Jeinsen came together and, on January 24, 2021, in Germany, proposed an action for damages in favor of 183 beneficiaries, including workers, survivors and victims’ families. In Brazil, despite the investigations and evidence that demonstrate the responsibility of the German company, no type of penalty or conviction was attributed to Tüv Süd. 

The opening of the judicial process in Germany and the international articulation led by the IGBCE have the support of the Association of Relatives of Victims and Affected by the Breach of the Córrego do Feijão Mine Dam (AVABRUM) and the Metabase Union.

The press conference was also attended by the president and member of the directory of AVABRUM, Alexandra Andrade, Regina da Silva e Jacira Francisca, women who have lost family members to the disaster. Juliana Rocha Braga, affected and lawyer at Advocacia Garcez; was also present at the event. 

Michael Wolters and Tom Grinter’s visit to Brazil aims to give visibility to global scale of initiatives undertaken and reinforce the need for judicial accountability for the deaths due to the collapse of the dam, a tragedy that is considered the second biggest industrial disaster of the 21st century and the biggest work accident in Brazil. Wolters and Grinter place themselves in the position of international activists and act, in this sense, so that companies Germans are liable for their refractory conduct practiced in the territories of other States. The mobilization undertaken by activists is in line with the performance of the Legacy of Brumadinho, conceived by AVABRUM, so that tragedies like the one in Brumadinho never happen again.

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* The Brumadinho Legacy Project is carried out with resources allocated by the Management Committee for Moral Damage Collective paid as social compensation for the rupture of the dam in Brumadinho in 25/01/2019, which claimed 272 lives.

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#amanhapodesertarde, #avabrum, #brumadinho, #justiçaporbrumadinho, #legadodebrumadinho, #tüvsüd