SANTIAGO, Chile (AFX) - Workers and management at the world's largest privately owned copper mine agreed Friday to resume talks aimed at ending a 12-day strike.
The agreement was reached in a government-mediated meeting ordered by President Michelle Bachelet. It includes a promise by the workers 'to maintain public order,' said Julio Manque, who represents the labor ministry in the northern region where the Escondida mine is located.
Workers had blocked the entrance to the mine Thursday evening, triggering clashes with police and prompting the company to break off talks and suspend the mine's limited 40 percent production maintained with contract workers.
On Friday, company representative Pedro Correa said that activity at the mine will resume 'but the process takes a while.'
President of the workers' union, Luis Troncoso, said he expects an agreement can be reached by Tuesday.
Friday's decision came just hours after Bachelet ordered the labor ministry to offer the government's help to get both parties to talk again. Labor laws do not permit formal mediation by the government.
The Escondida mine, 1,000 miles north of Santiago, produces about 4 tons of copper a day, or 8 percent of world output. Company executives have estimated daily losses from the strike at $16 million.
The 2,052-member union's demand for an across-the-board wage increase was the main hurdle in the talks, Troncoso has said. The workers' original demand for a 13 percent increase was reduced Thursday to 10 percent, but the company has offered 3 percent.
The workers are also demanding a $26,900 end-of-conflict bonus, but the company has offered half that amount, plus low interest loans.
Talks for a new contract also included health and education benefits.
The Australian-British consortium BHP Billiton PLC owns 57.5 percent of the mine, while Rio Tinto PLC, also Australian-British, holds 30 percent, and the Mitsubishi Corp.-led Japanese consortium 10 percent.
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