The Copper Workers Federation said the strike will cost Codelco—which produces around eight percent of the world's copper amounting to 10-15 percent of Chile's GDP—$20 million a day
Picture released by Aton Chile showing miners blocking access to the Ventanas smelter during the start of an "undefined" national strike of workers of the state mining company Codelco—the world's largest copper producer—in Las Ventanas, in the bay of Quintero and Puchuncavi, about 140 km west of Santiago, on June 22, 2022. Image: Raul ZAMORA / ATON CHILE / AFP) / Chile OUT
Santiago, Chile: Workers at Chile's state mining company Codelco, the largest producer of copper in the world, launched an open-ended strike Wednesday to protest the closure of a foundry in one of the country's most polluted regions.
Police said they arrested 18 people as striking workers, waving Chilean flags and setting tires on fire, blocked entry to six mining facilities around the country. They did this mainly at the Ventanas foundry, which the government announced last week that it would shut down.
Union leaders said the strike had paralyzed Codelco altogether but Finance Minister Mario Marcel said it had "altered" production but not shut it down.
The Copper Workers Federation said the strike will cost Codelco—which produces around eight percent of the world's copper amounting to 10-15 percent of Chile's GDP—$20 million a day. Marcel contested that figure.
The FTC represents around 14,000 Codelco workers and another 40,000 external contractors, according to Pantoja.