CL Port of San Antonio

Two months after bringing some of Chile’s biggest terminals to a standstill, Chilean port workers are preparing to stage a new walkout amid claims of unpaid bonuses.

Sergio Vargas of the San Antonio port workers union said stevedores at a number of ports would be mobilised unless bonuses agreed as part of the negotiations to end the previous strike were paid.

“If there is no agreement, we will mobilise,” Vargas told BNamericas. “They have to understand that a problem in one small port will mobilise all of us.”

The last strike, which was caused by a dispute over salaries and working conditions, lasted or 22 days and is estimated to have caused losses in excess of US$85m to fruit exporters.