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Workers at BHP Billiton Ltd.'s Escondida Mine in the Atacama desert will vote if they accept the final offer of the company until August 1st. Union 1, which represents 2,500 workers and maintenance operators at the giant mine, says that support for a strike is overwhelming after two days of meetings.
Patricio Tapia, union president, said Saturday that the company never wanted to negotiate, she wants to impose his point of view and he was given only crumbs that do not respond to their requests. Tapia said the union's first option is to reach an agreement, but that if there is no provision, they will have to resort to strike.
The positions of BHP and the Escondida union remain separated after almost two months of negotiations. that the union has presented its most ambitious salary proposal. Last year 's discussions failed and resulted in a 44 – day strike that ended without agreement. The strike was the longest strike in the modern Chilean mining industry and contributed to a global copper deficit and rising prices.
The risk of a new strike in Escondida increases and coincides with the protests of workers at the Copper Chuquicamata mine in Codelco, which halted operations on Monday. Chuquicamata plans to downsize next year as part of an underground operation.
BHP's final offer is the best possible one, said the company to Escondida workers in an internal statement to which Bloomberg had access. . BHP's accusations in Chile did not respond immediately to a request for comment outside normal working hours.
BHP offers workers a three-year contract including a 1.5% salary increase and an extraordinary payment. 18 million pesos (approximately US $ 28,000), as well as reductions in some existing benefits. The union demands to maintain its existing benefits, a wage increase of 5 percent and a premium of 25.6 million pesos.
If workers reject the offer, both parties will still have the opportunity to reach an agreement for five days of government-negotiated negotiations that could be extended by five additional days. If no agreement is found, the strike will begin in mid-August
. The union has a "plan B" in case the talks fail, but it can not unveil its strategy before the end of the vote, Tapia said. . An internal union statement to members to which Bloomberg has had access shows that the union plans to invoke a provision of Chilean law to extend the current contract and force the company to resume negotiations in 18 months.
] This is the same strategy that the union used last year. At the time, he preferred to extend the existing contract until July 31, rejecting extraordinary payments and salary increases related to inflation, instead of accepting an offer from him. which would reduce the benefits of the workers.
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