The World : 60,000 Join Strikes in Peru

About 60,000 state and private employees walked off their jobs in Peru’s vital mining industry, intensifying labor unrest that has crippled the country’s bus transportation and cargo shipments. In the poor neighborhoods ringing the capital of Lima, workers fought for space on pickup trucks and crowded into the few operating buses to get to their jobs. Protests have been escalating over inflation, which is expected to reach 1,000% this year. President Alan Garcia’s government acted to minimize the effect of strikes in the mines by offering workers double pay at the large state mining company in the central Andes. Mineral exports account for about two-thirds of Peru’s foreign exchange earnings.