20 June, 2011
The strike that began on 25 May by 11,000 contract workers at the El Teniente division of Codelco in Chile has dwindled to about 4,000 as many of the more than 20 employers doing sub-contract work for the state-run copper producer have settled with contract staff.
Production of copper cathodes from El Teniente, the company’s most profitable division, had dropped to 40% at the peak of the strike on 8-9 June following blockades that prevented buses carrying Codelco staff from reaching the mine. But by late last week, output grew to 75% or more as some sub-contractors awarded bonuses and increased travel allowances to contract workers to get them to return to work.
Codelco also began ferrying regular staff to the mine-site in central Chile by helicopters after transport buses were stopped and turned back.
The unions representing contract workers have been unsuccessful in getting either Codelco or Chile’s government to engage them on working conditions at El Teniente. (See ICEM report on the outbreak of the contractors’ strike here.)
Mines and Energy Minister Laurence Golborne said he has been monitoring the strike, but ruled out any possible involvement by Codelco or the government because of “acuerdo marco,” or an agreement in 2007 stating that neither party has an obligation to address the grievances of contract workers.
Regional politician Ricardo Rincón of Chile’s Christian Democrat Party (DC) condemned the government’s unwillingness to address the legitimate grievances of contract workers, stating that turning a deaf ear to workers does not speak well of Codelco management or of the government.
Sub-contract employers have given their staff one-time bonuses of 700,000 pesos (US$1,500) to quit the strike, in addition to the increases in travel allowance. The strike has been marked by daily mobilizations and marches in the nearby city of Rancagua in Region VI, some violence and damage to buses, and arrests of about 80 contract workers.
On 14 June, some 1,000 contract workers boarded 17 buses and travelled to Santiago to deliver petitions to the National Congress and several different ministries. Meanwhile, a day earlier in Rancagua, four women – mothers of striking contract workers – began a water-only hunger strike in the city’s cathedral to protest the government’s negligent lack of involvement in the dispute.
Elsewhere, at Codelco’s Chuquicamata mine, part of the company’s El Norte division, some 1,000 regular staff, union members of branches of Federación de Trabajadores del Cobre (FTC), marched on 15 June in preparation for a strike that could occur at any time.
The FTC branches are manifesting over staffing requirements and possible job retrenchments as Codelco prepares Chuquicamata for conversion from an open-pit copper mine to an underground one. The FTC said protests will continue and possible strike action will occur unless management shows a willingness to engage in talks with workers over plans for the conversion.
The US$2.2 billion conversion project means underground mining will start at Chuquicamata in 2018.