Read this article in:
2 July, 2007
A week-long strike by 28,000 contract employees working for employers doing business with Chilean state-run copper miner Codelco turned ugly on 25 June. Protestors blocked roads and burned buses leading into one of Codelco’s five mines, El Teniente.
On 28 June, they did the same at Radomiro Tonic, Codelco’s second largest copper mine. The contract workers are members of the Copper Confederation of Workers (FTC), a union representing workers at some 400 sub-contractors of Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer.
At the weekend, Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet ordered government mediators to step in and resolve the dispute. The FTC, which is not affiliated to the ICEM, is seeking wage parity with Codelco’s miners, as well as performance bonuses, better health care, housing, and education benefits.
The contract employees earn roughly half of what Codelco’s 15,000 miners receive.
Codelco said the strike has costed the company US$20 million in lost production. It also said it has limited ability to conduct negotiations with the contract workers, since they are employed by other enterprises.
The strike is supported by Chile’s national labour centre, the Central Workers Union (CUT), which has called for equality for all contract workers in the South American country. CUT has made it a priority to also improve labour conditions for contract and agency workers.
The FTC and the Chilean private miners’ society, Sonami, did issue a statement condemning the violence that occurred throughout last week at El Teniente, Radomiro Tomic, Codelco Norte, El Salvadoe, Andina, and at a Codelco smelter in Ventanas.
Scores of contract workers were arrested, and one was killed when he was struck by a truck owned by his company, Zublin engineering, while he was blocking a road.
The strike by the contract workers was the second at Codelco’s operations in the last 18 months. The workers staged a 17-day strike in January 2006, but did not receive wage parity or bonus payments at the time. They did, however, win some improvements in working conditions.