# 16 June 1983: Chile miners strike Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-this-day-in-working-class-history-6766530/16-june-1983-chile-miners-strike Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-this-day-in-working-class-history-6766530/16-june-1983-chile-miners-strike.md Podcast: [On This Day in Working Class History](https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-this-day-in-working-class-history-6766530) Published: 2026-06-16T04:05:02+00:00 Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/16-june-1983-chile-miners-strike--72310205 Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72310205/06_16_1983_chile_miners_strike.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/on-this-day-in-working-class-history-6766530/episodes/16-june-1983-chile-miners-strike Duration seconds: 86 ## Resource On this day, 16 June 1983, workers at the Chilean state-run El Salvador copper mines launched an illegal strike in protest at General Pinochet's dictatorship jailing their union leader the previous day. More strikes were due to take place at other mines the following day, and other unions were deliberating on whether not to join the strikes. Government officials responded by sacking 550 workers at the mines, and stating they would fire any workers who took part in the strikes. Despite many right-wing figures claiming that the Western-backed regime was an economic success story, Chile was at this time in the midst of a severe recession with collapsing economic growth and official unemployment figures of 20%. Meanwhile, the government was imposing spending restrictions demanded by the International Monetary Fund and private banks. Our work is only possible because of support from you, our listeners on patreon . If you appreciate our work, please join us and access exclusive content and benefits at patreon.com/workingclasshistory . See all of our anniversaries each day, alongside sources and maps on the On This Day section of our Stories app: stories.workingclasshistory.com/date/today Browse all Stories by Date here on the Date index: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/date Check out our Map of historical Stories: https://map.workingclasshistory.com Check out books, posters, clothing and more in our online store, here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com If you enjoy this podcast, make sure to check out our flagship longform podcast, Working Class History ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/on-this-day-in-working-class-history-6766530/episodes/16-june-1983-chile-miners-strike/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-this-day-in-working-class-history-6766530/16-june-1983-chile-miners-strike.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.