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28 June, 2010
International pressure and attention has been building around the 19-year strike of 340 Fiji Mineworkers Union (FMU) members at the Emperor Gold Mine in Vatukoula, Fiji, as a resolution becomes possible following Government intervention.
Executive member of ICEM’s Asia-Pacific Regional Committee, Robert Reid, also the General Secretary of the National Distribution Union of neighbouring New Zealand, has been particularly vocal, “This is perhaps the longest running strike in the world and it is time it was resolved,” Reid stated.
The Executive of the FMU met with Permanent Secretaries of the Fiji Government Wednesday, 16 June, the miners presented a compensation claim of US$8,000 per miner for every year of striking. The Government delegation consisted of Permanent Secretaries for Lands and Mineral Resources, Labour, Defence, and the Attorney General's office, as well as for Prime Minister Bainimarama.
Permanent secretary to the Prime Minister's Office, Pio Tikoduadua, said a response on the government's position would be made within the next 10 days.
The strike stems from the Emperor Gold Mine Company choosing to close down the mine, instead of negotiating a settlement over worker grievances of poor labour conditions, substandard housing and environmental damage at the mine.
The FMU moved the ILO’s Committee of Experts to analyse and resolve the dispute, this process was begun in December 2009. However, with those deliberations on-going, the miners’ picket has been removed and workers are now being threatened with eviction from their homes for arrears in rent.
In a letter to Fijian Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda urged Bainimarama “on humanitarian grounds and in accordance with provisions of the International Labour Organization to reach a fair and equitable resolution of this dispute.”