Ecopetrol and unions agree on wages

Ecopetrol SA, Colombia’s state-
controlled oil company, signed a five-year collective labor
agreement with workers. 

The union, called Union Sindical Obrera, will receive a
wage increase of 6.02 percent in the first year of the accord,
Bogota-based Ecopetrol said today in a statement distributed by
PR Newswire. Further raises will be linked to consumer prices in
each of the remaining four years.

The accord will help the company meet its target to
increase production to 1 million barrels of oil a day by 2015,
according to the statement.

Workers sought wage increases as oil prices rose 66 percent
this year in New York, the fourth-largest gain among 18
commodities tracked by the Bloomberg CRR Futures List. (Bloomberg)