Chilean customs workers called an end to their eight-day strike on Thursday afternoon after reaching an agreement with the government in a dispute over working conditions.
The National Association of Customs Officers of Chile (ANFACH) welcomed the latest proposal put forward by finance minister Alejandro Micco and said it would put it to an immediate vote among its members.
ANFACH had been calling for the customs service to be modernised and staff numbers increased from the current 1,300 to 2,100. Earlier this week the union rejected a government offer of an additional 250 members of staff. The latest proposal sets out plans to increase the workforce to 2,300 over a three-year period.
The walkout is estimated to have caused losses of US$100m to the private sector, including US$19m to the fruit export industry. Moments before its resolution it had threatened to spread to other sectors, with members of the Association of Agriculture and Livestock Service workers (AFSAG) announcing on Thursday that it had called a national strike for Monday, 1 June in support of customs unions.
AFSAG’s announcement drew immediate condemnation from Fedefruta, with president Juan Carolus Brown claiming it struck “at the very heart of Chile’s fruit industry.
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