The union at Chile’s Escondida copper mine, the world’s largest, has signed a pay deal with BHP, ending the risk of a further strike that could have threatened global supplies of the red metal.
The three-year deal included changes in labour conditions such as “initiatives to optimise shift changes, increase equipment utilisation and compliance with the 40-hour law,” BHP said in a statement announcing the deal.
An internal union message, reviewed by Reuters, asked members to return to work.
The mine’s powerful union had gone on strike on Tuesday over payment disputes before coming to a preliminary agreement on Friday to suspend it.
Earlier in the day the union had sent a memo to members warning it might restart the strike if BHP did not “rectify its position” over contract talks.
BHP’s statement didn’t provide any further details on the deal with the union. But earlier in the week, sources at the company and the union told Reuters that BHP offered workers around $US32,000 ($A47,824) as a bonus and an additional $US2,000 in soft loans.
BHP had previously offered a $US28,900 bonus per worker, compared with the union’s demand of one per cent of shareholder dividends from the mine, or roughly $US35,000 to $US36,000 per member.
At Escondida, memories remain fresh of the historic 44-day stoppage in 2017 that jolted global copper markets and slowed Chile’s economic growth.
Based on data from the state-run Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco), Escondida accounted for 23.7 per cent of the South American country’s copper production during the first half of 2024.
with AAP