UPDATE: Chile Spence Copper Mine Workers In Favor Of Strike
September 30 2009 - 11:28PM
Dow Jones News
Unionized workers at BHP Billiton Ltd.'s (BHP) Spence copper
mine in Chile unanimously voted in favor of going on strike next
week if government mediation fails, a union leader said late
Wednesday.
Of the 560 union members at the mine, 523 cast their votes
between Monday and Wednesday and all 523 voted for the strike,
union spokesman Francisco Aravena said.
Following local labor laws, either the union or mine management
can now seek a five-day, government-supervised mediation
period.
"The company already told us they'd be seeking the mediation,"
Aravena said, adding the strike could only begin Oct. 8 after
mediation has failed.
Local laws allow for a second five-day mediation period but only
if both parties request it. BHP representatives weren't immediately
available for comment.
Current contracts expired Sept. 30. Spence workers are seeking a
5.5% wage increase, social benefits and bonuses linked to
international copper prices. The company offered a cost-of-living
increase and smaller bonuses than what the workers sought.
The union represents about 95% of the workers eligible for union
membership and about 60% of the mine's total workforce, according
to the union's calculations.
The open-pit mine produced about 165,000 metric tons of copper,
in the form of cathodes, last year. This year, it's expected to
produce about 200,000 tons of copper.
This is Spence's second collective bargaining process as workers
negotiated the about-to-expire contract in 2006 before the mine
went into production.
In addition to Spence, BHP owns the Cerro Colorado mine and
controls and operates the Escondida copper mine in Chile. The
latter will begin wage negotiations later this 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 higher wages and production
bonuses.
-By Carolina Pica, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-820-4244;
carolina.pica@dowjones.com