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11 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 13/1998
Global mining giant Rio Tinto is out to bust the union at its Rössing uranium mine in Namibia. Now under attack by the world's biggest mining company is the Rössing Branch of the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN).
Rössing management's anti-union campaign has been strongly condemned by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the MUN is affiliated. Rio Tinto's anti-union stance in many parts of the world has made it a priority target for ICEM action. At a world conference in Johannesburg last month, the ICEM launched a worldwide network of unions organising in Rio Tinto (see ICEM News release 8/1998).
Rio Tinto is the biggest global minerals company. It employs some 51,000 people directly worldwide, and many more through subcontractors. The Rössing mine has long been one of its big money-spinners. During the illegal South African occupation of Namibia in the apartheid era, Rössing supplied uranium to the world, including to British civil and military nuclear programmes.
The current dispute centres on the MUN's Rössing Branch Executive Committee chairperson, Petrus Tjipute. The union says Rössing management has deliberately singled him out for victimisation. Notably, he has been banned from using the phone - a move that makes it virtually impossible for him to do his union work effectively. His job supervisors have also told him that his union activities are damaging his promotion prospects. The company currently assigns Tjipute to tasks that do not match his qualifications, and has ensured that nobody else takes on his workload while he is attending to union business.
Rio Tinto have "stepped up their dirty tactics to erode and eventually kill the Union," said the MUN in a statement issued this Tuesday 3 March. Management had been informed that if the victimisation did not cease, the union's local branch would have to "inform their members that they have been rendered incapable to represent them."
Despite great reluctance on the management side, one union-management meeting on the victimisation issue was finally held, but ended in deadlock. The branch has suspended all official dealings with the management and is taking the company to court.
"We know that the MUN has the strength and the determination to resist these attacks," commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe today. "The ICEM and its affiliated unions worldwide will give full support to the Namibian miners. We are determined to make Rio Tinto a good global citizen. Rio Tinto's job is to mine the world's resources - not undermine the world's unions."
In fact, this is not the first recent union-management conflict at Rössing. When the MUN tried to hold an ICEM-backed health and safety workshop there last month, management suddenly refused special leave for 22 workers to attend the safety event.
The official reason? According to a note circulated by General Manager Werner Haymann, the health and safety workshop was an ICEM bid to involve Rössing workers in an "Australian-led" campaign to discredit Rio Tinto, thereby putting Rössing jobs at risk.
As the MUN points out, Haymann "happens to have joined the Company about a year ago from Australia." Rio Tinto is engaged in a major union-busting drive in Australia, where another of its company executives helped to frame anti-union legislation brought in by the Australian federal government.
MUN officers at Rössing angrily rejected the claims in Haymann's memo, and exposed the many inaccuracies that it contains. ICEM Mines Officer Damien Roland, who happened to be in Namibia at the time, was in fact asked to give the workshop a brief overview of the Johannesburg conference. But, as MUN branch executive Alphens Muhuea told The Namibian newspaper, "the health and safety workshop was planned long before the Johannesburg meeting and dealt with legitimate issues."
To be fair, the Rössing management did later meet with the MUN to clear up the whole mess. Quizzed by the media, embarrassed managers issued a statement regretting the "misunderstandings" caused by the original memo. And in a bid to salvage relations with the union, the statement went on to emphasise the need for "good employee relations and constructive dialogue with the MUN."
What price "constructive dialogue" now?
This sorry tale sheds some interesting light on the Rio Tinto hierarchy. Like many global operators, Rio Tinto often hides behind "local management's right to manage." Labour issues, its argument goes, are local issues. On industrial relations, global corporate headquarters conveniently has "no right" to second-guess local managers.
Why, then, were the Rössing managers fed misinformation from London about the health and safety workshop? Why did they get their marching orders from Rio Tinto headquarters? And why, when things went so drastically wrong, was local management left to pick up the pieces?
Rössing management's anti-union campaign has been strongly condemned by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the MUN is affiliated. Rio Tinto's anti-union stance in many parts of the world has made it a priority target for ICEM action. At a world conference in Johannesburg last month, the ICEM launched a worldwide network of unions organising in Rio Tinto (see ICEM News release 8/1998).
Rio Tinto is the biggest global minerals company. It employs some 51,000 people directly worldwide, and many more through subcontractors. The Rössing mine has long been one of its big money-spinners. During the illegal South African occupation of Namibia in the apartheid era, Rössing supplied uranium to the world, including to British civil and military nuclear programmes.
The current dispute centres on the MUN's Rössing Branch Executive Committee chairperson, Petrus Tjipute. The union says Rössing management has deliberately singled him out for victimisation. Notably, he has been banned from using the phone - a move that makes it virtually impossible for him to do his union work effectively. His job supervisors have also told him that his union activities are damaging his promotion prospects. The company currently assigns Tjipute to tasks that do not match his qualifications, and has ensured that nobody else takes on his workload while he is attending to union business.
Rio Tinto have "stepped up their dirty tactics to erode and eventually kill the Union," said the MUN in a statement issued this Tuesday 3 March. Management had been informed that if the victimisation did not cease, the union's local branch would have to "inform their members that they have been rendered incapable to represent them."
Despite great reluctance on the management side, one union-management meeting on the victimisation issue was finally held, but ended in deadlock. The branch has suspended all official dealings with the management and is taking the company to court.
"We know that the MUN has the strength and the determination to resist these attacks," commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe today. "The ICEM and its affiliated unions worldwide will give full support to the Namibian miners. We are determined to make Rio Tinto a good global citizen. Rio Tinto's job is to mine the world's resources - not undermine the world's unions."
In fact, this is not the first recent union-management conflict at Rössing. When the MUN tried to hold an ICEM-backed health and safety workshop there last month, management suddenly refused special leave for 22 workers to attend the safety event.
The official reason? According to a note circulated by General Manager Werner Haymann, the health and safety workshop was an ICEM bid to involve Rössing workers in an "Australian-led" campaign to discredit Rio Tinto, thereby putting Rössing jobs at risk.
As the MUN points out, Haymann "happens to have joined the Company about a year ago from Australia." Rio Tinto is engaged in a major union-busting drive in Australia, where another of its company executives helped to frame anti-union legislation brought in by the Australian federal government.
MUN officers at Rössing angrily rejected the claims in Haymann's memo, and exposed the many inaccuracies that it contains. ICEM Mines Officer Damien Roland, who happened to be in Namibia at the time, was in fact asked to give the workshop a brief overview of the Johannesburg conference. But, as MUN branch executive Alphens Muhuea told The Namibian newspaper, "the health and safety workshop was planned long before the Johannesburg meeting and dealt with legitimate issues."
To be fair, the Rössing management did later meet with the MUN to clear up the whole mess. Quizzed by the media, embarrassed managers issued a statement regretting the "misunderstandings" caused by the original memo. And in a bid to salvage relations with the union, the statement went on to emphasise the need for "good employee relations and constructive dialogue with the MUN."
What price "constructive dialogue" now?
This sorry tale sheds some interesting light on the Rio Tinto hierarchy. Like many global operators, Rio Tinto often hides behind "local management's right to manage." Labour issues, its argument goes, are local issues. On industrial relations, global corporate headquarters conveniently has "no right" to second-guess local managers.
Why, then, were the Rössing managers fed misinformation from London about the health and safety workshop? Why did they get their marching orders from Rio Tinto headquarters? And why, when things went so drastically wrong, was local management left to pick up the pieces?