Chilean copper miners force tentative deal after ten-day strike
SANTIAGO — More than 700 miners at Chile’s Centinela copper operation have pushed Antofagasta Minerals to a preliminary contract agreement after a strike over unequal worker benefits. The unions announced the deal late Friday, October 16, and scheduled a membership ratification vote for Saturday.
Workers belonging to the Distrito Centinela and Minera Esperanza unions walked out on October 7 when bargaining collapsed. A central demand was equal benefits for employees doing work at the same mining operation regardless of which union represented them.
The confrontation intensified when three striking workers began a hunger strike on October 9. The company later presented improved economic proposals, and renewed negotiations produced the tentative settlement. The full terms had not been publicly established in the Reuters report, so the scale of any wage or benefit gains remains to be verified.
Centinela sits within one of the world’s most important copper-producing regions. Antofagasta reported 240,400 metric tons of copper production at the mine in 2025 and said production continued at normal levels during the industrial action.
The deal is therefore a political fact about labor power, not just a supply-chain footnote. Workers forced negotiations back onto the table in an industry central to global electrification, even as the company sought to maintain operations.
Ratification matters. Until members approve the agreement and the detailed terms are known, the breakthrough should be described as provisional—not as a finalized victory.
Documentary photo credit: WeHaKa, Óxidos Encuentro mine, Chile, December 2017. CC BY-SA 4.0. Archival photograph of the Centinela district.
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