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A complex collective bargaining process is facing the Candelaria mining company, controlled by Canada’s Lundin Mining. Tomorrow the second union of the company – Mina Union – will cease its work, which will join the Copper Workers’ Union, which paralyzed its activities on October 8. One of the measures that the company took, in the face of the workers’ mobilizations, was to suspend, starting tomorrow, its operations because it did not have the necessary security measures to protect its workers and facilities. But, in the next few days the conflict may continue, since next week the regulated process of the two supervisors’ unions begins, which do not rule out also starting a legal strike. In total, there would be some 1,300 own workers who could be mobilized at the site located in the Atacama Region.
The positions are very distant, despite the fact that the company initially offered a Conflict Term Bonus (BTN) of $ 10.6 million, which later rose by $ 400 thousand. Which together with a soft loan of $ 2 million and an exceptional day bonus, add up to total benefits of $ 14 million. The figure is similar to the one that Minera Escondida agreed with the supervisors union a few days ago – $ 15 million – in a conflict that was on the verge of ending in a standstill.
The firm also proposes a 24-month contract as a way to respond to the uncertainty that the industry is experiencing. In the 2017 process, the parties agreed to a collective contract whose validity was extended for 36 months.
“Dear partners, it is reported that in the meeting held today -October 19, 2020- with the mediator of the Labor Directorate and the company’s negotiating commission, the offer presented by the company is the same that it announced before make the strike effective. As a board of directors, we categorically reject this proposal and make it clear to the commission that when they have the true intention of talking and reaching an agreement, we will sit down, ”said the Mina Union in a statement. The union, led by Patricio Gárate, highlights that despite the mining company’s request to stop the mobilization to talk again, “we must not stop mobilizing them, because (the strike) is the tool we have to achieve our claim as a worker. The call is not to lower our arms and continue in this fight that we have to achieve our objectives, ”the document indicates.
One of the points that the workers do not want to compromise is the improvement in the production bonus, which is calculated with a formula that considers a “full cost” (total cost of production) plus the price of copper, which is indicated by union sources, it affects them instead of helping them. One of the points that plays against them, the sources consulted highlight, is that the formula also considers amortization and depreciation. “We are going to fight it,” says a union leader from the mining company.
They are also asking to readjust certain benefits by IPC, such as those related to schooling, housing and health. According to the data collected, the company’s workers receive an average salary of $ 2.5 million and have benefits such as vacation bonuses and a bonus of up to $ 2 million, for each child, if they are studying at university. In addition, they have school, health and dental insurance and Christmas and National Holidays Christmas bonuses.
But labor relations between the administration, led by Phil Brumit, and the workers have not been good, say the workers, who have even initiated proceedings before the Labor Directorate for anti-union practices. The relationship became more acute in November last year, when the company began laying off workers, which joins the retirement plan that the firm launched in July of this year, where more than 100 people were welcomed.
As a measure of pressure, last Thursday, the workers sent a letter to the CEO of the company in Canada, Marie Inkster, expressing the actions of the executives in charge of operations in Chile.
The conflict worries the government. Today the Minister of Mining, Baldo Prokurica, called for “a special effort to reach a good agreement” between the mining company and its workers in order to avoid the strike. “Chile is experiencing a complex reality, mining is especially relevant for the Atacama Region and for Chile, that is why I make this request, because I know they are going through a difficult time, and I think it is time to make a special effort” said the Minister of Mining.
Minera Candelaria produced 111 thousand tons of copper during 2019.