BHP Chile Copper Workers to Vote on Strike Next Week

SANTIAGO, Sept. 24 -- BHP Billiton Ltd. workers at the Spence copper mine in Chile will vote whether to go on strike next week after rejecting the company's latest pay offer, a union official said.

    Melbourne-based BHP made a final offer for a pay increase similar to the raise workers received in 2006, Andres Ramirez, president of the union representing the miners, said today in a telephone interview from Antofagasta, Chile. He declined to provide more details on the offer.

    BHP made an inflation-linked offer to comply with Chilean law and will continue to negotiate a deal that "meets the expectations of the workers, the labor market and the sustainability of our operation in the long-term," Santiago- based spokesman Mauro Valdes said in an e-mail.

    BHP, the world's biggest mining company, earlier this month rejected a proposal by the workers at the mine in Chile's northern Atacama Desert for 1.2 percent of the operation's earnings to be shared as bonuses, Ramirez said. Valdes declined to comment on the proposal.

    Workers may start a strike on Oct. 3 for an indefinite period if they fail to get more of a pay increase, Ramirez said yesterday. The strike would be delayed until Oct. 8 if BHP requests an extension to talks stipulated by Chilean law, he said.

    (Source: Bloomberg)