{"id":295224,"date":"2017-02-17T05:22:04","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T04:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/tensions-mount-in-chilean-copper-miners-strike\/"},"modified":"2017-02-17T05:22:04","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T04:22:04","slug":"tensions-mount-in-chilean-copper-miners-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/tensions-mount-in-chilean-copper-miners-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Tensions mount in Chilean copper miners strike"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"page\">\n<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>Tensions mount in Chilean copper miners strike<\/h2>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    Cesar Uco<br \/>\n    <br \/>16 February 2017<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p>A week-old strike at Chile\u2019s massive Escondida copper mine became more tense Wednesday after government mediation scheduled between the 2,500 striking workers union and BHP Billiton, the Anglo-Australian multinational mining conglomerate, were postponed until the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The talks, initially proposed by Chile\u2019s state labor board, have now been put off until at least Saturday. The acceptance of the government intervention on the part of the copper miners union signals a willingness by the union to bow to BHP\u2019s demands for wholesale concessions, including cuts in benefits and a two-tier system for new-hires. The workers had walked out demanding increased pay and bonuses. Last week, the union had rejected government mediation because of the company\u2019s refusal to guarantee the same benefits to current and future workers.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Chilean daily <em>La Tercera<\/em>, when the walkout began, workers were demanding \u201ca seven percent salary readjustment, maintaining the benefits they currently have, a contract that lasts up to 36 months and a bonus of 250 million Chilean pesos (US$ 390,600), the highest amount for a bonus delivered in the mining sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The delay in renewing the talks came after the mine\u2019s management threatened legal action over alleged clashes last weekend, when it claimed that more than 300 people wearing hoods stormed into the mine site, forced contractors to flee and damaged the mine\u2019s surveillance equipment. The union denied the charges, saying that 200 strikers had carried out a peaceful march at the mine site.<\/p>\n<p>Escondida, located in northern Chile\u2019s Atacama Desert, is the largest copper mine in the world, with an annual production of 1.14 million tons, 6 percent&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2017\/02\/16\/chil-f16.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Tensions mount in Chilean copper miners strike By Cesar Uco 16 February 2017 A week-old strike at Chile\u2019s massive Escondida copper mine became more tense Wednesday after government mediation scheduled between the 2,500 striking workers union and BHP Billiton, the Anglo-Australian multinational mining conglomerate, were postponed until the weekend. The talks, initially proposed by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-295224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}