An increase in industrial action is usually bad news, but copper producers worldwide should be cheering the souring relationship between Chilean mine workers and pit bosses.
Employees at Los Bronces, the world's 10th-biggest deposit, rebuffed a final pay offer this week from owners Anglo American, while one of the key unions at Codelco's Salvador mine voted against a pay proposal from the government-controlled company. Chuquicamata, another Codelco mine that for long was the world's largest open pit, was also halted this week after an accident.