BHP Workers Dig in for Strike at World’s Biggest Copper Mine
- Union and company remain divided in several key aspects
- Still one day remaining in five-day extension of talks
Escondida is the world’s biggest copper mine.
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Workers at the world’s biggest copper mine vowed to start an indefinite strike Thursday as talks with BHP Billiton Ltd. failed to produce an agreement following weeks of collective bargaining in Chile. Prices climbed.
“We will start what is maybe the most important union fight that this country has seen in recent times,” the union representing about 2,500 workers at the Escondida mine said in a statement Tuesday. BHP responded by saying that production would stop in the event of a strike.