Union officials were meeting Friday with the president of Cerrejon LLC and the country's vice president in an effort to reach an agreement and avoid a strike that could paralyze operations in Colombia's largest coal mine.

Leon Teicher, the president of Cerrejon, was attending the meeting along with the leaders of the Sintracarbon union and Angelino Garzon, Colombia's vice president.

Igor Díaz, the president of Sintracarbon, said before entering the meeting that a strike could be ordered by the union on Saturday if an agreement is not reached.

A strike at Cerrejon, equally owned by mining giants Xstrata PLC (XTA.LN), Anglo American PLC (AAUKY, AAL.LN) and BHP Billiton (BHP, BHP.AU), would hurt Colombia's coal exports. Colombia ranks as one of the world's top coal producers, with output at 76 million tons in 2010. Cerrejon's coal exports in 2010 were 31.4 million tons.

The negotiations between the union and Cerrejon focus on the workers' demands for a salary increase of at least 7%.

-By Darcy Crowe, Dow Jones Newswires; 57-314-298-3277; darcy.crowe@dowjones.com

 
 
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