Union hits back at “distorted” media representation of their strike

Workers at Chile’s Spence copper mine on Sunday fired back at the national media’s representation of their recent 42-day strike, which ended last week.

A full page advertisement in the Chilean daily “La Tercera” was paid for by the Spence miners union and described media coverage of the recent strike as “distorted” and “biased.”

The piece also insisted miners were right to strike and that BHP (the multi-billion dollar company that owns the mine) through the media had sought to “discredit the union and our negotiating team.”

“We (the striking miners) have been portrayed through the media in ways intended to criminalize us, showing us as violent, in order to make our case seem baseless,” the advert read. 

The mining union also blamed the length of the strike, which is the longest in the history of Chile’s private mining sector, on BHP. The miners insist that simply granting their original pay demands would have cost much less then the US$150 million the strike eventually cost the company.

“Their strategy in not matching our demands was not economically logical, but was aimed at making an example of us miners to the rest of the country,” the strikers said. “They wanted to show workers all over the country that exercising your right to strike only brings suffering and defeat.”

The miners voted last weekend to return to work after agreeing to an improved offer from BHP entitling them to four percent pay hike and a US$15,000 end-of-strike bonus, as well as contributions to living costs and other social benefits.

Even so, further strike threats were made last Wednesday before the formal signature of new contracts by workers was announced on Thursday morning to officially end the strike (ST, Nov 24).

The Spence miners had previously lowered their demands in a bid to bring Anglo-Australian owned BHP Billiton back to the negotiation table. In October the mining giant reached a new contract settlement with workers at the world’s biggest copper mine Escondida. The agreement awarded each worker a bonus of US$25,000 as well as a 5 percent pay raise (ST, Oct 14).

BHP is the world’s biggest private multinational mining firm recording annual profits for each year in the past decade in excess of US$600 million. In their advert the miners claimed that their strikes affected less than one percent of the company’s income.

The company’s operations in Chile account for ten percent of global copper production.

BHP is currently in negotiations with rival mining giant Rio Tinto to combine both firms Iron Ore operations in Australia in an attempt to save US$10 billion each. 

SOURCE: LA TERCERA, REUTERS.COM
By James Fowler ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )