Living in Peru : your everyday companion

(LIP-jl) -- Just when things appeared to be calming down in Peru's nationwide mineworkers strike, a union official from Doe Run Peru's La Oroya smelter plant announced the plant's workers have joined their colleagues in demanding wage increases.

Workers from Doe Run Peru's Cobriza copper mine, as well as those from Southern Peru, Shougang Hierro, Buenaventura, Volcan, and Minsur, among others, have been on strike since Monday, April 30, according to Luis Castillo, Peru's Mining Federation Secretary General.

Miners are seeking a greater share of the record profits producers are generating from surging metal prices. Peru is the world's largest producer of silver, the third-biggest in copper, zinc and tin and fifth in gold.

"The unions will decide today whether to accept the government's latest proposals to raise miners' pensions and grant more rights to subcontracted workers,'' Castillo said. "We haven't reached any agreements yet.''

Peruvian Labor Minister Susana Pinilla indicated that an agreement to end the strike was imminent after workers at Glencore International agreed do drop their pickets and return to work.

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