Conflicts Put Chile on the Hot Seat
The strike by workers of Escondida, the world´s largest open-pit copper mine, dominated the Chilean panorama this week, along with other conflicts that threaten with breaking.

With the intervention of the labor Ministry as the government mediator, the mining union and executives of the transnational agreed Friday to resume talks after workers blocked the mine and laid down tools.

Roadblocks aimed at impeding transportation of replacing staff.

Two thousand workers began a legal strike August 7 for a 13 percent pay raise, $30,000 net bonus per laborer, and health and education benefits.

However, Escondida, a consortium of the sector´s largest transnationals with a production above 3,500 tons of copper a day, only offered a 3 percent salary increase plus bonuses worth about $21,500 per worker.

Also Friday, the industry expressed concerned about the temporal closure of Escondida, which produces over 20 percent of the national copper and nearly eight of the global one, an action that pushed the Executive to act as a mediator at talks.

Mining firms also concern on the complex processes of collective negotiation that will shortly take place in ventures such Chuquicamata and the Andean Division of state copper corporation CODELCO, because Escondida will be a referent for other mining unions in Chile when the red mineral, the country´s main resource, is reaching historical prices.

Laborers want to make their salaries equal to the current copper price hovering around 3.4 dollar per ton, which has increased fivefold above the 0.63 it had in 2003.

Besides the mining conflict, the government of President Michelle Bachelet had to deal with a new student mobilization and protests by health workers, who will decide on August 21 if they convoke a national strike for wage claims and larger resources for the sector.

In addition, the Teachers´ Federation announced strikes on September 12 while students reminded that their demands for a better education are still pending solution.