BHP seeks meeting with Escondida union to resume talks

BHP Billiton has sent a formal request to meet with union leaders at the world’s largest copper mine in Chile, the first attempt to meet since talks failed on February 20, the company said in an emailed statement on Friday.BHP wants to propose a new wage offer that includes improvements in several areas that the union has said are essential to resume negotiations, Patricio Vilaplana, Escondida vice-president of corporate affairs, said in an interview in Antofagasta. Vilaplana didn’t specify what the changes were.“We want to sit down to talk and present a new offer,” Vilaplana said. “Obviously, there are some improved proposals in this new solution.”The month-long strike in Chile coincides with a halt in concentrate exports from the world’s second-biggest copper mine in Indonesia, crimping global supply and bolstering prices on the London Metal Exchange.BHP said it proposed union leaders to meet over the coming days. The company has not requested government mediation for this meeting, a labour directorate official said. Escondida’s Union Number 1 has received the offer but hasn’t issued a response, a union official said.Wage talks at Escondida have been stalled for almost three weeks. The union, which represents 95% of Escondida’s operators and maintenance workers, has said it will only go back to the negotiating table if management maintains benefits and working hours, and doesn’t differentiate between existing and new workers.It also needs to know the specifics of the company’s proposals on those three issues beforehand, Marco Lopez, a legal adviser to the union, said.“The company hasn’t contacted us to say they have a new offer,” Lopez said. “We still don’t know what these changes are about, or if they are important enough to overcome our concerns on the three main points.”Escondida is looking for options to meet the workers’ demands half way, Vilaplana said. During the last meeting on February 20, they talked about working hours, and the company said it’s prepared to do things like installing resting areas in remote sites so workers don’t spend a long time moving from one place to another.“There are new proposals, new adjustments, things that can get us closer,” Vilaplana said. “But this doesn’t mean we are leaving our wallets wide open.”In 2013, BHP paid workers a 23mn-peso ($34,500) end-of-conflict bonus, considered the highest such bonus in Chile’s history at the time. Earlier in this negotiation, workers sought a 25mn-peso bonus and a 7% salary raise, while the company offered an 8mn-peso bonus and no increase.“What’s important is to change the direction of the curve,” Vilaplana said. “We can’t keep going with this trend of increasing labour costs, we are already above the market and we are not the most productive.”The strike is entering its 30th day, and the company can now legally make individual offers. While management would rather present a collective contract, the option of individual contracts is always there, Vilaplana said. Legally, if over 50% of strikers accept individual offers, the stoppage must end.By this stage too, the company can resume output and replace strikers with contractors or its own workers. Escondida’s miners are fiercely opposed to that. About 1,100 are camped at the mine entrance, in the Atacama desert, at 3,100 metres above sea level. They take three to four-hour shifts to guard the six access points and are determined not to let anyone pass. Contractors and minimum services workers have had trouble going in or out of the mine.BHP’s priority is to resume work at the Coloso desalination plant, a project about 170 kilometres from Escondida, and at a concentrator plant within the mine precinct. The first involves about 400 workers, while the former needs 1,200 to 1,300 people. It’s also considering using contractors to do the maintenance necessary to restart output once the dispute is settled.“We probably will not resume production immediately,” Vilaplana said. “First, we would like to restart construction projects which don’t have anything to do with production.”