Codelco Copper Miners in Chile Ready Strike Actions at Chuquicamata

Copper mining unions at Chuquicamata in Chile’s northern Region II are poised to take job action against state-owned Codelco if certain terms and benefits aren’t met. Codelco’s largest copper mine is undergoing a restructuring that includes a drop in production, retirement severances in order to thin job ranks, and then a multi-year US$2 billion investment to develop and extract copper from underground deposits.

Miners of four local branches of Sindicato Minera Codelco Norte are upset that Codelco has reneged on certain conditions regarding retirement severance benefits. They are also upset that Codelco has refused to negotiate a social plan for job growth at the new underground project, called Chuquicamata Subterránea, a nine-year copper and molybdenum project that will extend Chuquicamata’s life span 42 years.

Codelco announced last year that it was cutting production by one-third over the next three years to prepare for the project. In December, senior managers of the national company clashed with supervisors when they pressured bosses to meet retirement quotas in order to set examples at both the Chuquicamata and Radomiro Tomic open-pit operations.

Now, Codelco has agitated 800 copper workers by reneging on severance entitlements and refusing – as is the practice in Chile – to engage legitimate trade unions in meaningfully talks on business development.

Refusal is common as well regarding trade union engagement over health and safety matters. At a smelting plant that is part of the Chuquicamata mine complex, a worker died following a traumatic injury near a refining furnace. The death occurred on 11 January, 13 days after the accident occurred. In October 2010, a contract worker was killed in a pit when a ten ton rock fell on him. And in December, another contract worker suffered serious spinal injuries while working near a crusher.

Codelco has split apart Chuquicamata and Radomiro Tomic by dissolving its Codelco Norte division and making each mining operation a separate division. The strategy distinctly indicates a move toward privatising.

Codelco is the world’s biggest copper producer and Chuquicamata is the world’s second largest copper mine, behind Chile’s Escondida mine, owned by BHP Billiton (57.5%) and Rio Tinto (30%). In January 2010, Chuquicamata mining unions staged a two-day strike that won workers sizeable pay gains.