Mine workers planning another strike in Peru
Peru`s mining unions are planning a nationwide strike to protest threatened firings and demand improved labor benefits from the government Peru`s biggest federation of mining unions is planning a nationwide strike to protest threatened firings and to demand the government fulfill promises to improve labor benefits, officials said on November 26. The strike could start in December and would be the third time this year mine workers have walked off the job at mines across the Andean country. "We have agreed on a plan to start a third strike over abuses against workers," Julio Ortiz, director of the labor federation, told Reuters. Some unions have said their members received letters from companies warning them they could be fired for participating in a strike held earlier this month. The federation has also asked Congress to pass bills that would ensure better benefits for mine workers. Peru ranks third in global zinc and copper production, fifth in gold, and first in silver, but the strike earlier this month had little impact on metals prices. The federation represents 22,000 workers in a sector that employs about 110,000 miners. (Reuters, November 27
