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The Confederation of Chilean Copper Workers proposed a national plebiscite on mining policy, aimed at promoting the re-nationalization of that industry.
According to the organization, which represents about 30,000 workers at the state-owned National Copper Corporation Codelco, with the profits obtained in just one year (2006), the transnational corporations operating in Chile recovered the investments made in 31 years.
Those estimates, Codelco workers say, corroborate that the copper industry is being shamefully sold out to foreign companies.
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| Codelco posted net income of $4.97 billion in 2008 |
"The spirit of nationalization advocated by President Salvador Allende on July 11, 1971, was betrayed by decree-law 600 of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, which opened the doors to transnationals," said Lautaro Carmona, general secretary of the Communist Party.
Copper multinationals in Chile "will do anything to preserve their privileges and the profits they are obtaining from the high price of copper," he stated.
Those profits represent nearly 75 percent of the national budget, four times that of the Education Ministry, and 7.3 times that of the Health Ministry, he said.
For Chilean mining workers, it is imperative to recover national sovereignty over the copper industry, because at the current pace of mining, reserves will not last for more than 50 years.
