By Fabian Cambero
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Workers at Chile’s Escondida mine have accepted a new offer from BHP and will not move forward with a strike that was planned for Nov. 28 and 30, their union said Monday.
Workers represented by the Sindicato No. 1 union at the Australian company’s mine in northern Chile, the largest copper deposit in the world, have been threatening to strike over safety concerns.
The union said that at 3:00 local time (0700 GMT) 1,495 members out of the 1,902 who voted accepted the company’s new proposal.
“This proposal contains a series of concrete and verifiable measures to improve the hygiene and safety of workers,” the union said in a statement. “Especially an intense joint inspection program between the union and the company of all work areas.”
The union said that the proposal also “set aside changes in operating practices the company was pursuing.”
BHP had reached a deal with the union early last week, but the agreement was pending approval by some 2,000 workers represented by the union.
Workers voted to reject the proposal on Thursday and threatened to strike if their demands weren’t met.
“The assemblies together with the board of directors decided to reject the company’s proposal,” the union said in a statement Thursday, adding that its members considered proposed security measures to be insufficient and wanted “concrete and verifiable” measures such as joint inspections of work areas.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Fabian Cambero; Editing by Toby Chopra and David Evans)
