Chile public-sector strike slows some exports

The indefinite strike by thousands of public-sector employees entered a third day on Wednesday, with court staff joining prison workers and customs officials to demand a 14.5 per cent pay increase to counter inflation at 14-year highs.

The strike, which unions say involves 400,000 workers, is the latest in a series of protests against President Michelle Bachelet's center-left coalition, which opinion polls show could be ousted by a rightist opposition alliance in a presidential election next year.

Chile is the world's largest copper producer and a major exporter of fruits and vegetables, with most exports being moved through large seaports. The strike by customs agents slowed agriculture exports, although some agents stayed on the job and worked extra emergency shifts to keep goods moving.

"We are not in a normal situation, but urgent exports are being shipped in emergency shifts," an official for the National Customs Service said of the ports. "Most urgent are fruits and vegetables, the perishable goods."

"Exports of copper from the ports of Antofagasta and Mejillones are running absolutely normally," the official told Reuters, adding that mountain border crossings used to ship freight by road were open but that there were lines and delays.

Exporters of fresh fruit said the strike was hurting their ability to meet quality standards and delivery obligations.

Protesters marched along main thoroughfares in Santiago on Monday and Tuesday, waving flags and blowing whistles. Public schools, hospitals and customs services were fully or partially closed.

An estimated 25,000 workers gathered outside Chile's Congress in the port city of Valparaiso on Wednesday, where lawmakers studied a government proposal for a sliding scale salary adjustment, with a 10 per cent raise for staff earning less than $1,500 a month -- more than 70 per cent of public-sector workers, many of whom earn far less.

The government was offering a raise of 9 per cent for workers who make between $1,500 to $3,000 a month and had ruled out an increase for top earners -- but later relented and offered an across-the-board 9.5 per cent increase, according to the lower house of Congress' official website, www.camara.cl.

The lower house is set to vote on the proposal on Thursday, and if it is passed, it will go to the Senate.

The 14.5 per cent raise workers are demanding compares to inflation that hit 9.9 per cent for the 12 months to October, more than triple the central bank's target rate of 3 per cent and the highest level since 1994.

"The problem is the government does not know how to listen, or to see, or to read," said Raul de la Puente, head of the National Association of Fiscal Employees, which comprises workers across the public sector.

"I think ministers, and especially the finance minister, need a crash course in socioeconomics."