MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Striking Chilean copper miners ease wage demands

Striking workers in north Chile at Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, dropped their salary increase demand from 10 to 8% in an effort to bring the three week strike to a conclusion.

The workers also dropped their end of strike bonus demand from 30,000 to 19,000 US dollars.

Still, there has been no official response from Escondida management. Sources close to the company said individual contract talks have already taken place between the company and some workers.

The company - majority owned by Australian giant BHP Billiton. - informed Chile's government Monday that it would exercise its right to replace striking workers with a new workforce.

Chilean law authorizes an employer to stop collective bargaining and try to reach individual agreements with workers following the first 15 days of a strike.

Chilean news media report that 20 workers have engaged individual contract negotiations with the company.

Union leaders accused Escondida of sending letters to miners to offer individual deals in an effort to subvert the collective negotiation process that ended Sunday.

Escondida's latest proposal included two contract options, both rejected and both proposing a 4% wage hike. One contract offer was for three years, including 23,500 US dollars in bonuses and interest-free loans; while the second would give an additional 1.3% raise in the fourth year, 32,000 in bonuses and loans, plus health and education benefits for the miners' children.

Escondida normally produces 3,500 tons of copper a day, accounting for 23.5% of Chile's and nearly 8% of global production.

By Morten Szygenda The Santiago Times - News about Chile