By Natalia A. Ramos Miranda3 Min ReadSANTIAGO (Reuters) -Union leaders at Chile’s state-owned mining agency Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, reached an settlement with the corporate on Thursday to finish a nationwide strike over the choice to shut a smelter positioned in a extremely polluted space.Workers of Codelco’s Ventanas copper smelter participate in a nationwide strike in protest towards the federal government’s and the corporate’s resolution to shut the smelter in Ventanas, Chile, June 22, 2022. REUTERS/Rodrigo GarridoThe Federation of Copper Workers (FTC), an umbrella group of Codelco’s unions, began the strike early Wednesday morning after Codelco’s board of administrators determined to shut its Ventanas smelter on Friday.“We’re officially declaring the end of the strike,” Amador Pantoja, president of the FTC stated to reporters exterior of Codelco’s headquarters in Santiago after hours of negotiations, including that strike leaders have been already lifting blockades across the nation.Workers had blocked roads exterior Codelco amenities across the nation, lit fires, and held up banners and Chilean flags calling for extra funding within the smelter.After spending almost $156 million over a decade to scale back emissions on the smelter, Codelco determined to shut it due ongoing well being issues within the surrounding neighborhood, which is dwelling to a number of industrial corporations, citing the smelter’s outdated know-how which made it more durable to curb emissions.About 350 folks labored on the smelter.Thursday’s settlement doesn’t embrace extra funding within the troubled Ventanas smelter, however it concerned strengthening the Ventanas copper refinery, Pantoja stated with out elaborating.“That lets us look forward with optimism and hope,” Pantoja stated.Andre Sougarret, Codelco’s interim chief govt, stated that the corporate was beginning a working dialogue with staff beginning Monday relating to the closure of the Ventanas smelter.“We’re with the workers; we plan on meeting their demands,” Sougarret stated, saying that retraining, relocation and exit packages have been on the desk for staff at the moment employed on the smelter.Closing the smelter will take years, in line with Sougarret and the method is reliant on Congress modifying a regulation that forces the corporate to make use of the Ventanas smelter, which may take months.The smelter is positioned in a populated space crammed with industrial corporations and has been the location of a number of air pollution incidents which have affected residents’ well being and prompted environmental emergencies, together with one earlier this month that precipitated the Ventanas smelter to shut.Reporting by Fabian Cambero, Natalia Ramos and Alexander Villegas; Writing by Alexander Villegas and Steven Grattan; enhancing by Barbara Lewis and Aurora EllisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
