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24 October, 2011
Queensland mineworkers employed by the BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) soundly rejected a direct company enterprise agreement proposal by 92% on 12 October. The 4,000 miners, represented by three Australian unions that are negotiating as the Single Bargaining Unit (SBU), then launched the longest work stoppage since strikes began in June.
They staged a 30-hour walkout from midnight on 18 October to 06h00 on 20 October.
The strike cut production at the world’s largest supplier of seaborne metallurgical coal. The strike and contract rejection also sent another sharp message to BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi that miners at BMA’s seven collieries in central Queensland will not accept compromises on work-life balance, or to their job security.
“The result shows that our members currently have little trust in the company as a whole, and they have seen through the waffle and spin,” said Stephen Smyth, District Vice President of the Construction, Forestry, Mine and Energy Union (CFMEU), the largest of the three unions.
After some 32 bargaining days dating back ten months, BMA used a part of the Fair Work Australia law to take its unwanted contract proposal directly to miners. The mail ballot, conducted between 29 September and 12 October, was rejected by a vote of 2,432 to 201. “(BMA) can’t ignore the message that the workers themselves have delivered,” said Smyth. “You can’t get a clearer picture than this.”
SBU and BMA resumed bargaining over this past weekend for three days in Rockhampton, Queensland. The other two unions comprising the SBU are the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) and the Electrical Trades Union of the Communications, Electrical, Plumbing Union (CEPU). All three unions are ICEM affiliates.
Even though BMA says it will put a 5% pay rise on the table, the SBU first wants agreement that there will not be a lowering of working conditions or diminished quality-of-life standards. SBU is resisting unwanted extensions on work rosters, which will negatively affect family life, and they oppose BMA in its will to gain contracting out flexibility. BMA wants to move from a five-day weekly roster to a seven-day one, and also seeks greater rule over operators’ jobs.
Past ICEM reports on this crucial Australian labour struggle can be found here and here.
The Bowen Basin mines of BMA have aided BHP Billiton in giving the world’s largest extractive resource company fiscal 2011 net profits of US$23.65 billion, 86% higher than in 2010 and a record for an Australian-based company. BMA’s seven mines produce 58 million tonnes of coking coal annually.