June 18 (LTIT) –Nearly 3,200 unionized workers at Codelco’s Chuquicamata copper mine started strike Friday morning demanding improvement in health care benefits and retirement benefits.

Members of trade unions 1, 2 and 3 had rejected the final offer made by Codelco and voted in favor of strike action last month. Incidentally, the three unions together account for almost 80% of the mine’s total workforce.

The unions had expressed their discontent in the company’s offer which failed to include the healthcare and retirement benefits demand raised by the unions. The revised contract put forward by the company had proposed 1.2% real wage increase and one-time payment of around $14,000.

Meantime, Codelco claimed that the proposed contract was the most serious, responsible and realistic one, especially considering the supply fears facing the industry. It intends to reduce open pit mining activities at the Chuquicamata mine and turn it into an underground mine, through $5 billion investment towards extension of minelife. The transition from open pit to underground is feared to affect over 1,200 jobs over the next few years.

The strike comes at a crucial time when copper prices are under pressure from the US-China trade war. The LME copper prices have witnessed sharp decline by over 8% since the beginning of May this year. The strike action by unions is likely to further delay closing of open pit and ramping up of the underground mine, sources said.