BHP Copper Miners Accept Wage Offer, Easing Chile Labor Tensions

(Bloomberg) -- Workers at a BHP Group copper mine in Chile accepted the company’s latest wage offer, putting an end to tense collective bargaining process at an operation accounting for about 1% of global supply.

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Spence workers voted in favor of a preliminary agreement reached between management and union leaders in mediated talks this week, the union said in a text message on Friday.

Averting a strike at Spence, which last year churned out about 250,000 metric tons, eases tensions in a busy schedule of collective bargaining in Chile at a time when high copper prices are swelling producer profits and inflating wage expectations of their workers.

Attention now turns to BHP’s other Chilean operation, Escondida, which is more than four times the size of Spence and has been the scene of lengthy strikes in the past.

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