Workers are demanding an increase that’s just one quarter the pay raise given BHP staff

Subcontracted workers at the Escondida copper mine in Chile's Region II on Monday threatened strike action unless mine owner BHP Billiton increases wages.

“We understand that some kind of strike action could start on Tuesday,” a union leader for the subcontractors said. “The idea is to stop work at the plant for one day and see how that impacts the company.”

Subcontracted miners at the Escondida plant, the world’s biggest copper mine, say that BHP has so far ignored their pay demands. In October this year the firm awarded its directly employed miners a bonus of US$25,000 and a 5 percent pay raise (ST. Oct 14), but subcontracted workers weren’t included in the agreement.

The subcontractors are seeking a pay hike worth 25 percent of the October agreement for each worker. Subcontracted miners are employees from outside firms hired by BHP because they cost less than BHP employees.

The Escondida mine is the worlds biggest copper mine which last year produced 23 percent of Chiles total national output. Photo rights to Nasa

Union leaders expressed concern over the differences in conditions for contracted and subcontracted workers, claiming to have raised the issue with both private mining firms and government authorities.

“We are concerned at the huge difference between the two groups, who are basically doing the same job,” said Manuel Ahumada, President of the Confederation of Copper workers.

He also pointed to the different positions of subcontractors working for private mining firms and those working for state-owned copper company Codelco, who automatically receive wage increases in line with raises given to contracted workers. “The private mining companies have never responded to our questions on this matter,” Ahumada said.

The Escondida mine produced over one million metric tons of fine copper in 2008 and accounted for over 23 percent of Chile's copper production. In the nine months up to September this year, the mine’s operating firm, BHP subsidiary Minera Escondida, reported profits of US$1.8 billion, down 56 percent on the same period last year. The decrease is largely due to a 41 percent fall in the average price of copper during this year compared to 2008.

Anglo-Australian firm BHP Billiton is the world’s biggest multinational mining company whose operations in Chile alone account for 10 percent of global copper production.

The firm last week settled a pay dispute with miners at its Spence facility in Chile ending a 42-day strike. BHP agreed a new contract entitling workers to a 4 percent pay rise and US$15,000 end-of-strike bonus (ST, Nov 24).

Mining unions at the facility published a page-long advert in the Sunday press defending their strike from what they call its “distorted” media representation (ST Nov 31).

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

A native of the North of England, James has divided most of his life between the cities of Newcastle and Leeds. After graduating with a history degree from the University of Leeds in 2007, he spent 15 months traveling South East Asia and Australia. This trip, following on from a year studying in Canada, has reinforced the traveling spirit in side of James. Residing in Santiago under the pretense of improving his language skills, he now realizes that learning Spanish in Chile is as hard as learning English from a Geordie. He currently gets to translate his passion for sport into writing, temporarily agreeing to sell his soul and call football 'soccer'. He is really enjoying Chile, particularly the weather and wonderfully cheap wine.