Workers at world’s largest copper mine go on strike

Workers at Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine in northern Chile, began work on Tuesday, August 13, “due to the inability to reach an agreement with Escondida-BHP” on a new collective agreement, the union said in a statement. It believes that “the fundamental demands of the workers”such as respecting rest times, “were not taken into account by the company”the Australian giant BHP. The union is also demanding that 1% of the dividends paid to foreign investors in the mine be distributed to the workers.

According to local media, BHP has offered to pay a bonus of $28,900 to each worker, but the union estimates that 1% of the dividends is equivalent to $36,000 per worker. BHP has said that it “regret” the workers’ decision despite its “repeated efforts throughout the process to present proposals containing substantial improvements to the current collective agreement, which is already one of the best in the industry”. Located in the Atacama Desert, the Escondida mine is controlled by the Australian BHP at 57.5%. In 2023 it produced 1.1 million tonnes of copper, or 5.4% of world production and 21% of that of Chile.

In 2017, Escondida workers held a 44-day strike, the longest in Chilean mining history. The strike caused $740 million in losses and led to a 1.3% contraction in Chile’s gross domestic product (GDP) that year. Currently, the union says it has “logistics funds several times higher than those of the 2017 strike”which will help finance the basic needs of workers and their families “for a very long period of time”. Escondida’s workers earn wages well above the national average in Chile, but in line with those charged by Chile’s powerful copper industry, the world’s largest, which generates between 10 and 15 percent of the national GDP.