Employees went on strike Thursday at Chile's Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) astronomical observatory, one of the largest centers of its kind in the world, to demand higher wages and better work conditions.

Local report said 195 of the 270 employees at the facility, located in Chile's northern Atacama Desert, decided to strike following failed negotiations with the international consortium that hired them, Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), which includes several US universities.

The workers at the facility, some 1,600 km north of the capital Santiago, were demand a wage increase of 15 percent above inflation, a readjustment of benefits in education, and hardship compensation for working at such a remote and high-altitude site.

The AUI had only offered to reduce the employees' work hours as a means to increase wages, which would not have benefited those already working reduced hours at either the desert facility or the offices in Santiago.

Victor Gonzalez, president of ALMA's workers' union, said the AUI would not budge from its offer.

"During the negotiation, the company's position did not change. They were very intransigent on the matter of not giving increases, for example, in remunerations," he said.

The union leader said it was paradoxical that despite the millions invested in the observatory, the AUI is skimping on resources that would match the workers' conditions to those at similar facilities operating in Chile.

Several of the world's most important astronomical centers are located in Chile due to the ideal environmental and atmospheric conditions in the country's north, including Cerro Paranal, La Silla and Tololo.

ALMA opened on March 13 as a joint undertaking between organizations and countries from North America, Europe and East Asia, in cooperation with the government of Chile.

The facility is home to 66 ultra-powerful antennas, seven to 12 meters in diameter, stationed at more than 5,000 meters above sea level in the Atacama Desert's Chajnantor plateau.