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Chile copper strike in day 5, two Codelco divisions shut
Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:50pm EDT
By Manuel Farias

SANTIAGO, April 20 (Reuters) - Chilean copper giant Codelco's Andina and Salvador divisions remained shut for a fifth day on Sunday, as the latest in a series of strikes by subcontractor miners continued to hit output at the No.1 world producer.

State-owned Codelco said however its Teniente division had resumed normal operations on Sunday morning after a series of shifts were reduced to skeleton staff due to the strike by disgruntled miners who want a bigger share of windfall revenues given record copper prices.

"There's an impact. Every time a shift is suspended and miners cannot go to work, that affects production," a source at Teniente told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "You can't quantify it on a day-to-day basis, but it will become clear in the medium-term.

While both Codelco's Andina and Salvador divisions have been paralyzed since the strike began on Wednesday, Teniente has kept running with reduced, emergency staff filling in for three suspended shifts.

Subcontractors from the Confederation of Copper Workers, which groups more than 30,000 workers at state-owned Codelco, began a company-wide strike on Wednesday to demand improved working conditions and pay.

Workers scuffled with police for a third day on Friday, pelting buses with stones and erecting roadblocks. Codelco in turn lodged legal complaints accusing some subcontractors of holding its staff hostage.

Codelco has said it has no plans to close its Codelco Norte division, which includes giant open pit mine Chuquicamata, or its Teniente and Ventanas divisions.

Andina, situated about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of the Chilean capital Santiago, produced 218,000 tonnes of copper in 2007. Salvador lies 685 miles (1,100 km) north of Santiago and produced 64,000 tonnes of copper last year.

Teniente is Codelco's second biggest division, located 50 miles (80 km) south of Santiago.

The Confederation of Copper Workers demands that Codelco fulfill agreements reached in July 2007 that ended a long, sometimes violent, strike for improved benefits and pay -- and has vowed to continue striking until those demands are met.

Subcontracted workers want pay and benefits in line with those of Codelco's 14,000 unionized employees who do the same jobs across its five divisions.

They also want the company to absorb 5,000 subcontract workers into its full-time ranks.

Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, has annual output of about 1.7 million tonnes. (Writing by Simon Gardner, Editing by Jackie Frank)


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