Restructured Mining Industry
Workers at the giant Codec, the world’s largest producer of copper, on Monday a 24-hour strike to claim against a plan to restructure the mining industry.
The last time Codec operators made a total paralysis was 18 years ago.
Here is a list of major mining strikes in Chile in the last two decades:
- August 1991 – More than 9,500 workers at Codec El Tenanted division remain on strike for nearly a month, halting production of the largest underground copper mine in the world at a cost of $ 450,000 per day.
The same month, workers at Chuquicamata, then the world’s largest copper mine open pit paralyzed chores for two weeks.
- May 1993 – Workers at Codec strike that lasted less than an hour. Had no effect on production.
- February 1995 – Some 1,200 workers at state refiner Venetians copper stop their work for a wage dispute that forced the government to buy copper cathode in the spot market to secure their supplies.
- May 1996 – Chuquicamata miners made an eight-day strike ended May 12.
- April 2003 – Workers in the Candelabra copper mine agreed to end a strike that lasted 16 days after accepting an offer from the company on wages and benefits.
December 2003 – Copper prices up due to a strike of 11 days in Codec’s Adina division by wage demands and bonus payments linked to production.
- August / September 2006 – Escondido, currently the largest copper mine in the world is affected by a 25-day strike by 2052 union workers forced to declare force majeure. The paralysis damaged production and pushed up copper prices in the international market.
- June / July 2007 – Codec signed an agreement to give bonuses and benefits to 14,000 workers in contracting firms serving the state mining company, after a sometimes violent strike that affected the production of the El Tenanted, El Salvador and Adina. Contract workers threatened to extend their protest to the private mining companies, but this did not materialize.
- July 2007 – A four-day strike at Collahuasi causes a rise in international copper prices.
- May 2009 – Workers at the Lomas Bays copper mine, owned by global miner Xstrata, reach a wage agreement with the company and end a stoppage of tasks that lasted nine days.
- November 2009 – Workers at the Spence copper mine, BHP Billiton group, end a strike that lasted 42 days and left a total loss of about 20,500 tons.
- December 2009 – Workers at Xstrata’s Altamonte go on strike after not reach an agreement with the company during its collective bargaining process.
- January 2010 – Union workers at the huge Chuquicamata copper mine started a strike that pushed up copper prices.
- May 2010 – Contract workers blocked the access road to Collahuasi, hitting operations and forcing the company to declare force majeure briefly.
- November 2010 – Workers at Collahuasi plant, a unit controlled by Xstrata and Anglo American, began a strike for higher wages that lasted over a month. This strike is enshrined among the most difficult he has faced a foreign mining in Chile.
- May / June 2011 – Production at Codec’s second largest mine, El Tenanted, is substantially reduced due to a protest by contractors, demanding better wages.
- July 2011 – Thousands of workers in all divisions of Codec made a one-day stoppage in protest at a plan of modernization. The strike will cost the firm to stop producing 4900 tons of copper.