3rd UPDATE:Chile Collahuasi Loading 10,000 Tons Copper For China
November 26 2010 - 2:39PM
Dow Jones News
With the strike at Chilean copper mine Dona Ines de Collahuasi
entering its 22nd day, the company is loading a shipment of 10,000
dry metric tons of copper bound for China, a company spokeswoman
said Friday.
Despite the strike, production at the mine, one of the largest
in the world, has remained normal because of a contingency plan the
company has in place
"The shipment of around 10,000 dry [metric] tons is being loaded
and it's headed for China," Collahuasi spokeswoman Bernardita
Fernandez told Dow Jones Newswires.
Since the strike started Nov. 5, Collahuasi has sent out two
shipments of copper, one bound for Japan and the other for
Europe.
Collahuasi already hired 100 workers earlier this week and is
looking to hire 200 more to maintain production at the mine, she
added.
With the deadline to accept the company's sweetened offer set to
expire at midnight on Friday, 220 workers of the 1,551 unionized
strikers have broken away from the industrial action and accepted
the offer. The company is offering workers a wage increase,
improved benefits and a contract signing bonus of around $29,000
per worker.
After the midnight deadline that signing bonus will be reduced
to around $25,000 per worker, Fernandez added.
According to Chilean labor laws, if 50% of the striking workers
break away, the strike ends immediately.
Meanwhile, a Chilean court ruled Friday that the company must
abstain from "pressuring striking workers" from accepting the offer
and ordered the company to resume negotiations with workers.
Collahuasi's Fernandez said that collective contract
negotiations "haven't finished" and that the company is "waiting
for the union to call them" to restart talks.
For his part, Juan Barraza, union secretary, said that so far
talks hadn't resumed, but they were "working to see if they could"
start them up again.
Collahuasi union president Manuel Munoz, argued the court ruling
also forces those workers that have already accepted the offer to
return to the strike and give the company back the signing
bonus.
The company countered, though, that the court ruling allows for
workers to continue accepting the offer and won't force workers who
have accepted the deal to return to the strike or refund their
bonuses.
"The judge restricts us from making selective offers, from using
coercion or putting conditions [on accepting the offer], but there
are no limits regarding continuing the reincorporation [of workers]
or the legality of those that already have done so," the company
said in a statement.
Diversified mining companies Xstrata PLC (XTA.LN) and Anglo
American PLC (AAUKY, AAL.LN) each hold a 44% stake in Collahuasi,
while a consortium led by Mitsui & Co. (MITSY, 8031.TO) holds
the remaining 12%.
Collahuasi, one of the world's largest copper mines, is located
185 kilometers southeast of the port of Iquique, high in the Andes
mountains at 4,400 meters above sea level. It produces about
500,000 metric tons of copper a year, or about 3.5% of global
annual output.
Chile is the world's leading copper producer, accounting for
about 35% of global output.
-By Anthony Esposito, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-715-8929;
anthony.esposito@dowjones.com
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