Union At BHP's Escondida Copper Mine In Chile Set To Strike

The union at BHP's Escondida mine in Chile, the world's largest copper mine, has called on its nearly 2,400 members to reject a final contract offer from the company and prepare for a strike, the union president said, Fabian Cambero reported for Reuters.

A satellite view of BHP's Escondida copper mine. I Image: NASA

Union President Patricio Tapia told Reuters that workers will vote from Monday to Thursday.

The union's stance on the contract offer has not previously been reported. If workers reject the deal, a strike could start immediately. But Chilean legislation lets either party call for five days of government mediation, extendable by another five days if both parties agree.

Tapia said that if union members strike, the company would not be able to produce copper since replacement workers are prohibited by law and the union represents 98.5% of frontline operational workers at Escondida.

In 2017, more than 2,300 union members took part in a 44-day strike at Escondida, hurting production and pushing global copper prices up.

"We are much better prepared (for a strike) than before. We have a significant strike logistics fund, four times larger than the one from 2017," Tapia said.

"And we also have credit agreements to meet the basic needs of workers and their families for a long time." Tapia said that workers were proposing that they receive an amount equal to 1% of shareholder dividends.

This amount would be paid over the three-year life of a new contract. In 2023, BHP said it paid out $8.6 billion which would be about $36,000 for each of Escondida's 2,390 workers.