Workers at Chile's Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, voted overwhelmingly on Friday to strike to demand a new contract offer from the company that reflected soaring copper prices.
With global copper prices surging and markets nervous about supplies, 97 percent of 2,052 union workers at the mine had participated in the vote for a strike late on Friday. "Some 97 percent of workers voted to strike," Union Secretary Pedro Marin told Reuters after votes were tallied.
He said the company will seek government mediation to hold off the strike, giving sides five more days to resolve their differences before workers walk off the job. Marin said 1,994 workers voted, with the remaining 58 workers not participating because they were on holiday or otherwise not available.
"Only one vote was in favour of the company. One vote was blank," he said. "On Monday we'll be talking with the company," Marin said. With copper prices more than five times what they were when the union negotiated a 2003 contract that expires on August 2, workers are demanding a large raise from Escondida. The mine is majority-owned by global miner BHP Billiton.
Copper prices have soared amid strong demand from China's booming economy and solid global economic growth. In New York, copper futures rose 2 percent on Friday amid jitters about the Escondida strike vote and a rockslide this week at the huge Chuquicamata copper mine, owned by top copper producer Codelco.
Workers were voting throughout the day on Friday, as shifts entered and exited the massive open-pit mine in northern Chile, and as union members on leave voted in surrounding towns. Escondida expects 2006 copper output to be similar to last year's level of 1.27 million tonnes.
BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner, owns 57.5 percent of the open-pit mine, while number-two Rio Tinto has a 30 percent stake. Billiton could not be reached for comment. If government mediation fails, a strike likely would begin on August 7.