The two week strike at the state-owned Huanuni mine in Bolivia ended on Thursday. Last week two Huanuni miners were killed when police broke up a roadblock supporting the action. “This morning we had a meeting … and workers decided to start again on Monday,” the mine’s general manager Roberto Montano told Reuters, adding that miners would increase production in the short term to make up for the lost output.
Miners downed tools on July 31 to back a campaign for bigger pensions and a lowering of the retirement age to 55 that was being led by country’s largest labour federation, the COB. The COB called off protests earlier this week after the government said it would include the union’s demands in a new draft of a pension reform plan. The government is also investing heavily in a major investment plan for the mine, which produced 821 tonnes of tin-in-concentrate in June.
New official figures show that total Bolivian mine output of tin rose by 7.2% to 8,324 tonnes in the first half of this year.
