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9 January, 2006
Contract workers, employed by some 400 companies providing services to world leader copper producer Codelco in Chile, are striking for bonuses to gain a fair share of rising copper prices that have reached record highs on international markets.
The 28,000 contract employees, working from food service to transport, struck all four divisions of state-owned Codelco’s across Chile two weeks ago and are seeking bonuses totalling US$970. On 4 January, police used tear gas to disperse strikers from roads leading to the El Teniente mine, the world’s largest underground copper mines and one of the four divisions.
Contract workers earn less than half of what the 15,000 full-time, unionised workers of Codelco earn. Copper currently is selling at a record high of US$4,575 a tonne, and Chile through its Codelco earnings realized US$5.3 billion in profit through export of copper in 2005.