Antamina Mine Workers Set to Strike indefinitely

A mine in one of the best copper mines in Peru is under threat of an indefinite strike as negotiations with management have led to nothing good. The miners' union leader said they had no plans to postpone the strike for further talks with management. Jorge Juarez is currently appointed as General Secretary of the Miners' Union.

Miners' unions say workers are planning to halt production and demand an increase in the share of the profit sharing agreement with the company, due to the decline in copper production. The miners are demanding the introduction of a fair payment scheme for overtime work and holidays, changes in the insurance system and pension benefits for miners. The strike, initiated by the workers, threatens copper production at the Antamina mine, which produces more than 30,000 tons of copper per month.



After meeting with the leadership, Juarez said that the negotiations did not lead to anything definite, so the union decided to resort to its strike plan. Antamina's vice president of human resources and security, Silvio Brignetti, said in a statement that workers are making demands that cannot be met and accepted. He also added that they need to sort out the situation and move on to restart production.

The company said it had not violated the profit-sharing agreements with its employees, and that this was due to a slowdown in copper production, as well as a decline in copper prices. The Antamina mine is owned by BHP Billiton and Glencore Xstrata, which each own 33.75 percent of the mine, located at 4,300 m in the Central Andes.