LIMA (Reuters):Peru's largest mining union started a nationwide strike yesterday to demand better job benefits, but it was not clear what the impact would be as workers at many of the top pits reported for duty.
The strike was supported by most workers at Southern Copper Corp., one of the world's top copper miners, while workers at Cerro Verde, the nation's fourth-largest producer, held off from joining the walkout. Workers at Yanacocha, Latin America's largest gold mine, said they would continue working for now, as did miners at Barrick Gold Corp's local unit.
Demand benefits
Miners at Antamina, the country's largest copper producer, do not belong to the federation and they had said they would not strike either.
The National Federation of Metallurgic and Steel Miners called the walkout to demand improved benefits and an end to outsourcing among mining companies which President Alan Garcia pledged on the campaign trail last year.
Peru's mining federation is made up of 74 mining unions, representing 22,000 workers. About 110,000 miners are estimated to work in the sector overall. Global metals markets were keeping a close eye on the strike yesterday because Peru is among the world's top two silver producers, and is number three in copper and zinc and nummber five in gold.
Four days of lengthy negotiations between the federation and the labour min-istry to avert the strike failed on Sunday.
"The information we have is that the strike is being carried out by an absolute minority," Labor Minister Susana Pinilla told local radio station CPN.
Markets discounted
The last nationwide strike took place three years ago, when miners stopped work for 48 hours to protest the previous government's labour policies.
"Markets have discounted this eventuality by moving higher for much of last week, and so the news is being taken in stride, as participants now focus on assessing the strike's duration," said Edward Meir, a base metals analyst at New York's Man Financial.
A union leader at Volcan, the country's number one zinc and silver producer, told Reuters that between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the workforce was on strike at around 9:00 a.m.
