Workers of the world’s largest copper mine go on strike in the middle of a collective negotiation process and said that negotiations between the company and Chilean government have failed.
Initially workers requested a salary readjustment of 7% then added a $ 25 million conflict termination bonus and they wanted to keep all the other benefits, in a contract with a maximum duration of 36 months, but the company offered a $ 8 million bonus, zero salary readjustment and review of an important part of the current contract, with a duration of 48 months (maximum allowed)
This strike at the Chilean mine would be lengthy, affecting global supplies of a metal used in everything from construction to telecommunications.
This cooper mine produced 6 percent of the world’s supply in 2015. On the Night of February 7 one tonne of copper was trading at $ 5.795 up from a morning low of $ 5.786. This strike would also reduce production at the mine to practically zero according to the workers of the mine.
The Strike has eight days and the company said that they will not produce anything at least in the first fifteen days of the strike. Operators said that it is hard to predict how the company can be maintained without producing.