BHP, Union Reached New Agreement at Escondida Copper Mine

The union workers had gone on strike last Tuesday in connection with disputes over payment.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): BHP has reportedly reached an agreement with Union No.1- the most prominent union, representing nearly 2,400 workers at Chile’s Escondida copper mine. The signing of the new deal has thus ended the threats of a possible strike action by the union members, which in turn could have significantly squeezed the global supplies of the copper metal.

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According to sources, the new three-year deal promises to offer workers around $32,000 as bonus per worker, in addition to $2,000 in soft loans. The union had demanded for 1% of shareholder dividends from the mine, which is roughly equivalent to approximately $35,000 to $36,000 per worker. It must be noted that the BHP’s earlier offer to provide $28,900 as bonus per worker was rejected by the union.

The union workers had gone on strike last Tuesday in connection with disputes over payment. Later on Friday, it had come to a preliminary agreement with the company, thus ending the strike. However, it had warned the employees that it might be forced to restart the strike. Following the signing of the new deal, the union, by way of an internal memo, has asked workers to return to work.

Chile’s Escondida copper mine accounts for almost 5% of the world’s total mined copper output.

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