BHP Billiton's Chilean Union Rejects Improved Offer (Update3)
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- A union at BHP Billiton Plc, the world's largest mining company, rejected a sweetened wage offer, saying workers at Chilean copper mine Escondida will strike on Aug. 7.
Management at the mine today improved its salary offer for the second time this week by offering to increase bonuses by 400,000 pesos ($737) to 8.5 million pesos per worker, and by pledging to build miners a soccer field. It left unchanged its offer to boost wages by 3 percentage points above the inflation rate.
``This offer isn't even worth voting on,'' Marin said.
Copper prices rose 4.1 percent today in New York partly on concern that the labor dispute will reduce supplies. A strike by the union, which wants a raise of 13 points above inflation, will halt production at the mine, Marin said in a telephone interview. Escondida produced 8.5 percent of the copper mined worldwide last year.
Copper for delivery in September rose 14.30 cents to $3.6325 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have more than doubled in a year in part on demand in China, the world's biggest user. Prices have more than tripled since 2003, when the mine's union last negotiated salaries.
The union, Escondida's Workers' Union No. 1, wants a bonus of 16 million pesos per worker in addition to the wage increase, the union's president, Luis Troncoso, said prior to today's offer. The union said its 2,052 members represent about 94 percent of the mine's workers.
Management last sweetened its proposal on Aug. 2 by raising the salary increase from 1.5 percentage points above the inflation rate. The union is seeking a raise of 13 percentage points above inflation.
BHP Billiton owns 57.5 percent of Escondida, Rio Tinto Plc owns 30 percent and a group led by Mitsubishi Corp. owns 10 percent. The International Finance Corp. owns the rest.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Heather Walsh in Santiago at hlwalsh@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: August 4, 2006 17:51 EDT
