By Fabian Cambero and Alexander Villegas
SANTIAGO- A powerful workers union behind a strike at BHP’s huge Escondida mine, which produced nearly 5 percent of the world’s copper in 2023, is looking to snarl production at the site as it pushes for a bigger share of profits.
The union, which launched a strike on Tuesday, has paralyzed the world’s largest copper mine before and driven up global copper prices. This time, much depends on how quickly negotiations can unlock the standoff.
“(Escondida’s union) has a history of hard negotiations, with no fear of striking to achieve their goals,” said Andres Gonzalez, head of Plusmining consultancy in Santiago.
When the union held a 44-day strike in 2017, global copper prices spiked as BHP declared “force majeure” two days into the strike, meaning it could not fulfill its contracts.
The company also had to declare force majeure in 2006 after a 26-day strike, and in 2011 the union stopped operations for 14 days. The union went on a hunger strike in 2015. A strike was just avoided in 2021 despite a labor dispute.
Three elements make the union especially strong, Gonzalez said. The union has about 2,400 members, about 61 percent ofEscondida’s workforce. It has strong financial reserves to take care of workers during a strike. And lastly, Chilean legislation doesn’t let the company replace striking workers.
“The company will be forced to stop an important part of their operations, which evidently gives (the union) enormous bargaining power,” Gonzalez added.
Aside from comprising a majority of the total workforce, the SindicatoNro. 1 (Union No. 1) makes up 98 percent ofEscondida’s frontline workers that include machine operators, drivers, technicians and maintenance workers – all key to keeping up production.
Patricio Tapia, president of the Escondida union since 2016 and part of the union leadership since 2008, told Reuters previously that the union has four times more funds than in 2017 as well as credit to meet worker needs during the strike.
The 2017 strike ended when the union used local legislation to freeze the expired contract and then negotiated for another 18 months.
BHP on Tuesday evening said the union had rejected its latest invitation to restart talks, although the labor group has asserted it is willing to resume dialogue.
The company said its contingency plan calls for allowing non-unionized workers to continue working, and that operations were continuing, although it did not specify to what degree.
