BHP union faces hardest test as Escondida strike beats 2006

Bloomberg

A strike at the world’s largest copper mine faces a critical phase this week as the union expects management to tempt workers with an offer that could end the stoppage in northern Chile. After 30 days of strike, on March 10, BHP Billiton Ltd.’s Escondida can legally make individual offers to workers. If it manages to convince more than half of the workforce, the union will have to concede defeat and end to the strike.
“Everything will change on day 30,” Carlos Allendes, a union spokesman, said by telephone on Friday. “The company is probably betting that some workers will go back to the mine, but we feel confident that many won’t accept worse benefits than we have now.”
On Monday, the strike at Escondida will overtake the 25-day stoppage at the same mine in 2006, which at the time was the longest strike in at least a decade among Chile’s major copper mines. Disruptions at Escondida and Indonesia’s Grasberg, the second-largest copper mine, have helped push up prices
of the metal.
A 28 percent rally in the past six months is emboldening workers at a time of surging earnings growth after companies made deep cost cuts. Other mine operators in
Chile are watching the Escondida dispute closely as it is expected to set the tone for upcoming negotiations this year.
BHP didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Last month, the company said it wouldn’t produce at least during the first 30 days of the strike.
“In 2006, the company went door to door talking to workers’ wives, trying to convince them to tell
their husbands to go back to work,” Allendes said. “We understand that their policy will be exactly the same this time.”
During Escondida’s 2006 strike, 32 workers out of about 2,000 went back to work before the strike ended. Spence, also operated by BHP, holds the record for the longest strike in Chile over the last 10 years. About 10 percent of its workers broke ranks, Allendes said.