Agreement reached to avoid strike at world's largest copper mine in Chile

The main workers' union at theworld's biggestcoppermine,Chile's Escondida, announced Friday it hadreachedanagreementwith Anglo-Australian giant BHP toavoidastrike.

The union, which counts more than 2,000 members, said it had obtained "almost unanimous" approval for a new collectiveagreementproposed by management, cancelling astrikenotice that it had filed on July 31.

BHP had already said earlier in the week that negotiations had ended, "resulting in the final content of the collective contract and closing conditions," however theagreementhad yet to be accepted by the union.

Neither BHP nor the union published the financial details of the deal, although the company confirmed in a bulletin that the negotiated conditions would be in force for 36 months.

"This afternoon, after almost unanimous acceptance by our base, we formalised the signing of our new collective contract, which includes the gains obtained during collective bargaining," the union said.

Local media reported that theagreementincluded a bonus for each union member of $23,000, as well as nearly $4,000 for extra days worked, in addition to other provisions.

Workers at the Escondidaminehad announced their intention tostrikeafter insisting their demands for a one-off bonus to recognize their work during the coronavirus pandemic had not been met.

In 2017, Escondida workers staged a 44-daystrike-- the longest ever in the Chilean mining industry -- that lost BHP $740 million and provoked a 1.3 percent fall in the country's GDP.

Chileis theworld'slargestcopperproducer, with 5.6 million tons a year that make up 28 percent of global output, much of which is sold to China, theworld's biggest consumer.

Mining makes up 10-15 percent ofChile's GDP and half of its exports.