Workers at Chile’s Codelco threaten work halt to quarantine against coronavirus

Unionised workers at Chile’s State-run Codelco, the world’s largest copper miner, said on Wednesday they were weighing walking off the job at some sites in order to implement a self-imposed quarantine after one of their members died from Covid-19.

The Federation of Copper Workers (FTC) said in a statement there had been "alarming" numbers of coronavirus infections at several of the country´s mines. Measures to tame the spread of the virus had been insufficient, the federation said.

"If it is necessary to halt work in those areas … until sanitary conditions are adequate to protect mine workers, we are ready to do so," the federation said in the statement.