Chile strike halts world's largest copper miner

Unionised workers at Chile's Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, announced a 24-hour strike Monday over modernisation plans they say would amount to the start of privatisation. The strike - the company's first in 18 years - will halt work at a state-owned mining operation that produces 11 percent of the world's copper.
The nation-wide strike will affect all company units, said Raimundo Espinoza, president of the Federation of Copper Workers (FTC), which represents some 15,000 Codelco workers. The workers oppose modernisation plans being implemented by company officials appointed after President Sebastian Pinera, the first conservative to take office in Chile 20 years. The plans include shedding some 2,600 jobs, amounting to more than 10 percent of Codelco's workforce.
The strike would halt production of about 4,900 tons of copper and generate losses of more than $40 million, Codelco said earlier. The FTC represents 75 percent of the company's 20,000 employees. Codelco head Diego Hernandez denied that the modernisation plans would result in the company being privatised, but acknowledged that the workers are unhappy with the changes.
The strike "is in part unease over the changes that the company has implemented and must continue carrying out," Hernandez said on Sunday. Company officials made contingency plans ahead of the looming strike, and said they have taken measures to keep critical operations open.
The modernisation plans are necessary to compete with more nimble private operations, according to Codelco, which is investing $3.5 billion per year in the company through 2012. Part of the investments are in upgrades necessary to access the harder to reach copper, as the easily reached veins have already been exhausted. Company officials say will result in a production increase of 2.1 million tons by 2020. The strike is being held on the 40th anniversary of creation of Codelco, founded after foreign mining companies were nationalised in 1971 by the leftist government of president Salvador Allende.