Codelco workers in Chile to start national strike on Wednesday -union
Workers at Chile's state-owned Codelco will start a nationwide strike on Wednesday to protest the government's and the company's decision to close a troubled smelter, a union official said.
Workers at Chile's state-owned Codelco will start a nationwide strike on Wednesday to protest the government's and the company's decision to close a troubled smelter, a union official said. "We are going to start on Wednesday in the first shift," Amador Pantoja, president of the Federation of Copper Workers (FTC), told Reuters Monday.
Workers had threatened a national strike if the board of directors did not invest to upgrade a troubled smelter located in a saturated industrial zone in Chile's central coast. Instead, Codelco said on Friday that it would terminate its Ventanas smelter, which has been closed for maintenance and operational adjustments after a recent environmental incident sickened dozens in the region.
The unionized workers insist Ventanas needs $53 million dollars for capsules that retain gases and allow the smelter to operate under environmental compliance, which was dismissed by the government.
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