Codelco subcontracted workers start new strike

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SANTIAGO.- Subcontracted workers for Codelco began a new strike today at five different divisions of the firm. Union leader Cristián Cuevas has said that workers are protesting as a way to ensure the fulfillment of agreements that were reached last year after negotiations brought an end to a large worker strike. 

Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, has suffered problems in plant operations since mid-2007 when the company’s subcontracted employees began staging occasionally violent demonstrations in search of salary and labor improvements as well as a direct contract with the corporation.

“We are asking the government to intervene because Codelco has lied to the country, to the (Catholic) church and to the workers.  The agreement needs to be fulfilled and that should be a resolution imposed by President Michelle Bachelet”, Cristián Cuevas said by phone. 

 “We have invested a huge amount of effort in negotiations, we have been infinitely patient for 7 months, and they have just been stepping all over the workers”, the union leader told Digital FM radio station.