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16 November, 2009
State-owned Solid Energy of New Zealand once again has to pay the price for actions of coal-mining sub-contractors. Following a short “go-slow” job action at Solid Energy’s Rotowaro colliery on the North Island in protest over eight months of stalled bargaining, contractor RWE Mining locked 160 workers – members of Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) – off their jobs on 27 October.
That caused 120 other EPMU members at the nearby Huntly East coal mine, also without a current agreement, to strike in sympathy. On 2 November, at Solid Energy’s Stockton mine complex on the South Island, 500 EPMU members went on strike, partly in sympathy and partly over their own grievances over a new shift roster imposed by contractor Downer EDI Mining of Australia, originally a New Zealand company.
The next day, 120 miners at the Spring Creek mine, also on the South Island, struck, meaning 900 miners in New Zealand have downed tools, shutting the nation’s coal industry. The miners had been bargaining through EPMU with Solid Energy and its contractors under a Multi-Employer Collective Agreement, which expired on 31 March 2009. The different mines also have individual agreements related to work rules, however.
At Rotowaro, where coal deposits will start to be exhausted by late next year, workers became frustrated with RWE Mining stalling on adequate redundancy provisions, as well as remuneration for going to a 24-hour, seven-day operation that sparked the “go-slow” action. The dispute was inflamed there when Solid and HWE consulted on pay and working conditions without involving the EPMU’s bargaining unit.
On the South Island, shift rosters and remuneration also are serious issues.
RWE Mining is part of Leighton Contractors of Australia, while Downer EDI is a major engineering, infrastructure, and mining contractor based in Sydney. In 2007, again after a contract expiration, HWE Mining locked out EPMU miners at Huntly Rotowaro, causing a wave of sympathy strikes at Solid Energy’s other collieries.
The current dispute was intensified last week when Solid Energy began running advertisements calling the EPMU irresponsible and encouraging miners to return to work. The state company said it would not return to bargaining until the strikes ended, and also threatened job cuts if the strikes continue.
“Solid Energy is out of touch with its workers,” stated EPMU Assistant National Secretary Ged O’Connell. “The company needs to realize that this strike action is a result of their behaviour towards their workers and all of their workers will stand up together to fight it.”
EPMU mine leaders from all the sites will meet today to determine their next steps in the dispute.