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26 September, 2011
BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) in Queensland, Australia, is a major global coal exporter to the metallurgical industry. In enterprise bargaining in the coal-rich Bowen Basin of Queensland, it has painted itself as a big bully.
BMA and three Australian trade unions, the latter in unison in trying to preserve miners’ basic quality-of-life, have been locked in a ten-month dispute that has now become the bellwether on trade union rights under the nation’s two-year-old Fair Work law. On issues of rosters, subcontracting, and other job conditions, BMA has tried to dictate, much like it could under the draconian WorkChoices Act of ousted Prime Minister John Howard a handful of years ago.
The three unions, negotiating as the Single Bargaining Unit (SBU), are the Construction, Forestry, Mine and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), and the Communications, Electrical, Plumbing Union (CEPU). They are making a stand for fair rights and equitable job protections on behalf of workers so those workers can determine their own terms and conditions of work.
SBU Picket at Goonyella Riverside Mine, July
That is a tenet to Fair Work Australia. Over the weekend of 17-18 September, BMA used FWA to suspend bargaining, circumvent the SBU, and take its rotten work proposals directly to 4,000 miners. A ballot will be held between 29 September and 5 October. Knowingly or not, but characteristic in itself, BMA scheduled the ballot during Australian school holidays – many workers will be away with family.
Nonetheless, the ballot will receive near 100% rejection. Ever since a strike vote passed by 92% on 2 June, miners at six collieries have gained ever more strength and unity, and have developed the ironclad fortitude that extended work rosters and Howard-era management rights are not good for family life and destructive to job security.
The ICEM will continue to champion the workers under the SBU banner of our three affiliated unions. Their fight is one that must be won so that the bad choices made in WorkChoices finally make their way to the dustbin. The ICEM has chronicled this struggle and the lawful industrial actions taken by the SBU, and a sampling of past developments can be found here and here.
In sync with BMA’s recent ballot initiative, shift-long work stoppages occurred early last week at four of the six mines – Norwich Park, Saraji, Gregory, and Crinum. The SBU has effectively called for quality-of-life balances in print and media advertisements and industrial actions have continued at all mines in recent weeks.