15 August, 2011
Further industrial actions in Queenland’s rich coal fields happened over the weekend and early last week as three Australian unions – joined together as the Single Bargaining Unit (SBU) – continue months-long efforts to gain a fair collective agreement with the world’s number one exporter of metallurgical coal, the BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA).
Mineworkers led by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), and the Australia Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) and Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), this weekend took 12-hour work stoppages at BMA’s Gregory Crinum and Blackwater mines in the Bowen Basin, while similar rolling 12-hour strikes occurred from 7-9 August at the Goonyella Riverside, Saraji, Peak Downs, and Norwich Park mine sites.
The protected actions are in preparation for SBU-BMA talks this week, 18-19 August. Some 4,000 miners have been stymied by the coal-producing enterprise belonging to the two multinationals since December 2010 over a fair collective agreement. (See prior ICEM report from June.)
SBU Picket at Goonyella Riverside Mine, July
Despite BMA publicly boasting of high miners’ salaries and its own pay offer in these drawn-out talks, the dispute has little to do with money but rather work conditions and quality-of-life issues. The SBU is resisting unwanted extensions on work rosters, which will negatively affect family life, and they oppose BMA’s desire to gain flexibility over contracting out, an obvious job security threat. BMA wants to move from a five-day weekly roster to a seven-day one, and seeks greater rule over operators’ jobs.
Since industrial action began following a 2 June ballot that saw a 92% support, the strength of miners of the three unions has only grown. That was visible at a mass picket at the Saraji mine that was set up on 6 August.
BMA is a ten-year joint venture that extracts 58 million tonnes annually of coking coal from the Bowen Basin and exports it from its wholly-owned Hay Point terminal on Australia’s east coast.