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29 June, 2006
South African trade unions today, led by national centre COSATU and ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), picketed the Johannesburg offices of BHP Billiton over the company’s labour policies in Australia.
BHP Billiton, the world’s largest diversified mining, energy and steel company, has been quick to follow the Howard government in Australia in instituting the draconian effects of the country’s new WorkChoices law. In resource-rich Western Australia, for example, BHP Billiton is currently stretching state labour statute in order to align with the new federal law by demanding from workers that they sign individual employment contracts rather than adhering to traditional enterprise agreements.
The COSATU and NUM protest, joined by five other South African unions from 11h00 to 13h00 (GMT) today, 29 June, is in solidarity with week-long protests sponsored by the Australian Council of Trade Union (ACTU) that are currently underway in protest to the WorkChoices law. ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) in South Africa also participated in the Johannesburg protest.
In New Zealand, ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU), together with other trade unions there, are also showing support to the ACTU by conducting demonstrations at Australian targets in Auckland and Wellington.
Besides the individual work agreements, known as AWAs in Australia, the WorkChoices law places prohibitions on workers from attending union-provided health and safety training, removes protections from unfair dismissals, reduces a union’s involvement in dispute resolution, and opens the way for employers to use contract labour and employment agencies in place of full-time, permanent employees.
Earlier this month, the ILO’s International Labour Conference in Geneva placed the Howard government’s anti-worker labour law on its agenda, specifically on whether or not it adheres to labour rights Convention 98, the Right to Organise and Bargain Collectively Convention, a core convention that Australia ratified in 1973.
The South African protests against BHP Billiton come at the exact time in which Prime Minister John Howard is in China pushing more export of Australian iron ore and natural gas, resources in which BHP Billiton is a leading producer of from Western Australia.