Most of the five unions at Chile’s state-owned Codelco mine, the world’s largest copper producer, rejected an advance offer of a collective bargaining agreement on Thursday night, the union federation told Reuters.
In recent weeks, the members of the century-old deposit, which produced 443,200 tons of copper in 2020, had rejected some proposals submitted by the company in an early process of discussions for the contract, which expires at the end of October.
Only one of the five organizations accepted the mining company’s proposal. Some leaders had pointed out that the offer was based on “loan on loan” and not on direct benefits to the partners.
With the rejection of the anticipated process, the parties still have a formal negotiation period prior to the expiration of the contract.
Codelco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On the other hand, Codelco is currently facing a strike by workers at its Andina mine, who denounce that the company seeks to eliminate historical benefits and ask for greater recognition of the company considering the current high prices of the metal.
The closure last week of a million-dollar negotiation of a new contract for workers at Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, has fueled workers’ expectations of getting a bigger slice of the profitable business, at times of high prices.
