The union of the world's largest copper mine began a legal strike at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday. It had already expressed its intention yesterday to file a complaint against the mining company for anti-union practices.

The Escondida Mining Union No. 1 and BHP did not reach an agreement within the framework of collective bargaining.

Then, and in accordance with the regular procedure, both parties went to mandatory mediation before the Labor Inspectorate, where the talks also failed to reach a conclusion.

Therefore, Union No. 1 of the largest copper deposit in the world began a legal strike at 08:00 hours this Tuesday.

Additionally, on Monday, workers reported that the mining company had presented a contract offer to its partners outside the mediation process they are maintaining to try to avoid a strike, reported local media La Tercera , which is why they said the company was carrying out anti-union measures.

In response, the company announced in a statement that it had activated a contingency plan.

BHP said it regretted the situation and mentioned that it had previously made “consecutive efforts to present proposals containing substantial improvements to the current contract” during the mediation.

He said his proposal was “already one of the best collective instruments in the industry.”

The company made four proposals for each point raised by the union, but said that the workers had "presented new demands" on the last day of mediation.

In light of all this, and given the "impossibility of moving forward" and the start of the legal strike, the contingency plan was activated.

During the first half of 2017, the workers' group - which at that time was made up of 2,500 members - carried out a strike for 44 days.

On that occasion, losses in the production of the red metal reached US$ 184 million.