UPDATE 2-Thousands of marchers join striking Peru miners

(Recasts, adds broader protests)

LIMA, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Thousands of teachers, nurses and construction workers marched in Peru to denounce a free trade pact with the United States and demand better pay on Thursday, the fourth day of a nationwide mining strike.

In one of the biggest protests against President Alan Garcia since he took office in July 2006, chanting marchers representing a broad group of unions urged the government to abandon mainstream economic policies.

Workers want a greater share of an economic boom that has elevated growth to 8 percent a year but largely left wages stagnant and bypassed the poor.

"The needs of the masses need to be defended, as they are by all of Peru's left and the Nationalist Party," Mario Huaman, leader of the country's largest labor confederation, the CGTP, which organized the strike, said in front of thousands of demonstrators in downtown Lima.

The CGTP is affiliated with the Nationalist Party, which opposes foreign capital that has flooded the Andean country as mining companies expand to take advantage of high global metals prices.

Across Peru, workers marched in provincial hubs of Cusco, Arequipa, Iquitos, Trujillo and Chiclayo. Despite Peru's swift economic growth, Garcia's approval ratings fell 14 percentage points in October to 30 percent, the lowest of his presidency, according to pollsters Ipsos Apoyo.

Hours before the protests, Garcia raised his left hand in front of the presidential palace with the V-victory sign after hearing the U.S. House of Representatives approved the U.S.-Peru free trade agreement.

MINING

Even as members of Peru's leading labor confederation marched, mine workers' who went on strike on Monday said they may go back to work soon.

A committee in Peru's Congress passed a labor reform bill late on Wednesday that was asked for by miners, who said on Thursday they could end the walkout if the bill is approved in a floor vote this week.

The bill passed by the committee would eliminate caps on profits that mining companies share with workers.

Mining unions have also asked the government to clamp down on outsourcing by companies, allow early retirement, and give workers the right to enroll in state-run pension funds.

"We'll see what happens in Congress today ... and later we will make a decision," said Jesus del Castillo, director of the group of mining unions that called the strike. "There have been important advances in search of a solution."

So far, the strike has not hurt mining output from Peru, a leading global metals producer.

The group of mining unions that called the walkout represents 22,000 workers. It has said at least 21,000 union and non-union workers are on strike.

But the government has said only 6,300 of Peru's 120,000 miners were on picket lines. (Reporting by Marco Aquino, Maria Luisa Palomino, Teresa Cespedes and Terry Wade, editing by John Picinich)