Chile Spence Copper Workers Receives BHP Wage Proposal -Union
September 23 2009 - 12:47PM
Dow Jones News
Unionized workers at BHP Billiton Ltd.'s (BHP) Spence copper
mine in Chile received the latest wage proposal from management
Wednesday and will vote on it later this week, a union spokesman
said.
He declined to detail the offer as union leaders haven't yet
fully gone over the proposal.
"It's very complex; it includes not only an end-of-conflict
bonus as well as health, educational and other social benefits,"
spokesman Francisco Aravena said.
Following local labor laws, the 560 union members will vote, by
a show of hands at assemblies Thursday and Friday, on whether they
accept the wage offer. If rejected, a strike vote, via secret
ballot, would be held Sept. 27-29, Aravena said.
Spence workers are seeking a 5.5% wage increase, social benefits
and bonuses linked to international copper prices.
Before workers can go on strike, once their contracts expire,
Chilean labor laws include a five-day, government-mediated
negotiations period if either party calls for it. Finally, there's
an additional five-day mediation period if both parties agree to
it. If workers were to strike, it could only legally begin after
Oct. 5. Current contracts expire Sept. 30.
The open-pit Spence mine produced about 165,000 metric tons of
copper, in the form of cathodes, last year.
In addition to Spence, in Chile BHP owns the Cerro Colorado mine
and controls and operates the Escondida copper mine. The latter
will begin wage negotiations later this year.
Workers at several divisions of state copper giant Corporacion
Nacional del Cobre, or Codelco, will also negotiate new labor
contracts at the end of the year.
In 2006, when copper prices were booming, Escondida workers went
on strike for nearly a month, bringing the world's largest copper
mine to a standstill as they sought bigger wages and production
bonuses.
A BHP representative confirmed management had presented its wage
offer.
-By Carolina Pica, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-820-4244;
carolina.pica@dowjones.com