Monday, July 11, 2011

don't privatize!

[from Jude Webber @ Financial Times, 11 July 2011]

Chile leader’s cheers turn to jeers

Chile's President Sebastián Piñera

Less than a year ago, Sebastián Piñera, Chile’s president, was the hero of the hour – the president whose government had pulled off the incredible feat of rescuing 33 miners trapped underground for two months.

But now his popularity has sunk to 31 per cent, according to a new Adimark poll, lower than any other president in Chilean history, and the cheers have been replaced by jeers from students and environmentalists. Now copper workers at Codelco, the state corporation, are expressing their dissatisfaction over fears that the government plans to privatise the country’s key cash cow.

Codelco is the largest copper-producing company in the world

Read the rest of the article here.