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12 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 50/1998
Rio Tinto, the world's biggest mining company, is under renewed scrutiny this week as protests by a worldwide coalition of labour, environmental, human rights and indigenous people's organisations hit home.
In the build-up to the company's Annual General Meeting in Melbourne tomorrow, Australian newspapers are this week giving extensive coverage to criticisms of Rio Tinto by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
Due to its anti-union stance in many parts of the world, Rio Tinto is currently one of the main targets for the ICEM's global networking. ICEM Australian affiliate the CFMEU is facing one of Rio Tinto's most sustained attempts to deunionise its mines and end collective bargaining.
The latest media coverage was sparked by the Australian launch today of the Rio Tinto Stakeholders' Report. Published by the ICEM, the 56-page report is entitled Rio Tinto - Tainted Titan. It takes a cool but critical look at the multinational's financial performance and prospects as well as Rio Tinto's record on human rights, health, safety and the environment and relations with indigenous peoples.
The stakeholders' report had also been launched earlier this month in London to coincide with Rio Tinto's AGM there. The company is dual-listed in the UK and Australia. The London AGM witnessed sharp exchanges between union representatives and company chairman Robert Wilson - see ICEM UPDATE 45/1998. The Australian media are predicting more fireworks in Melbourne tomorrow.
The report is available from the ICEM.
It can also be accessed in full on this site, as part of the ICEM'S Rio Tinto cybercampaign.
The cybercampaign is attracting growing attention and support worldwide. It includes a forum where everybody can exchange comments on the company's behaviour and performance. Messages posted so far include one from a Rio Tinto executive - who has not, however, so far registered for a continuing free exchange of views.
MORE PARLIAMENTARY EMBARRASSMENTS FOR RIO TINTO
Meanwhile, the stakeholders' report was praised in a motion tabled in Britain's House of Commons the day after the London meeting. Moved by Member of Parliament Michael Clapham and backed by many other British legislators, the motion is "That this House congratulates the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, which represent 20 million workers in 114 countries on their lobby of Rio Tinto's Annual General Meeting on 13th May and on the publication of the Stakeholders' Report - Rio Tinto Tainted Titan, presented on the same day at the Stakeholders' Factual Meeting in the Methodist Central Hall, which examines the company's human rights record and scrutinises the environmental and health and safety performance of its operation; and calls on the company to honour the rights laid out in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights which it claims to have adopted into its business practice."
The Universal Declaration enshrines everybody's right to form and to join trade unions.
The mining multinational faced further embarrassment in the House of Commons last Thursday, when a parliamentary foreign affairs committee criticised Rio Tinto, British Petroleum, Shell and Unilever for failing to adopt policies that would prevent the exploitation of child labour. Conservative Member of Parliament Sir John Stanley, himself a former Rio Tinto employee, asked representatives of the four multinationals if they had a global minimum age for the hiring of staff. When told they did not, he condemned their "thoroughly woolly" policy on child labour.
In the build-up to the company's Annual General Meeting in Melbourne tomorrow, Australian newspapers are this week giving extensive coverage to criticisms of Rio Tinto by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
Due to its anti-union stance in many parts of the world, Rio Tinto is currently one of the main targets for the ICEM's global networking. ICEM Australian affiliate the CFMEU is facing one of Rio Tinto's most sustained attempts to deunionise its mines and end collective bargaining.
The latest media coverage was sparked by the Australian launch today of the Rio Tinto Stakeholders' Report. Published by the ICEM, the 56-page report is entitled Rio Tinto - Tainted Titan. It takes a cool but critical look at the multinational's financial performance and prospects as well as Rio Tinto's record on human rights, health, safety and the environment and relations with indigenous peoples.
The stakeholders' report had also been launched earlier this month in London to coincide with Rio Tinto's AGM there. The company is dual-listed in the UK and Australia. The London AGM witnessed sharp exchanges between union representatives and company chairman Robert Wilson - see ICEM UPDATE 45/1998. The Australian media are predicting more fireworks in Melbourne tomorrow.
The report is available from the ICEM.
It can also be accessed in full on this site, as part of the ICEM'S Rio Tinto cybercampaign.
The cybercampaign is attracting growing attention and support worldwide. It includes a forum where everybody can exchange comments on the company's behaviour and performance. Messages posted so far include one from a Rio Tinto executive - who has not, however, so far registered for a continuing free exchange of views.
MORE PARLIAMENTARY EMBARRASSMENTS FOR RIO TINTO
Meanwhile, the stakeholders' report was praised in a motion tabled in Britain's House of Commons the day after the London meeting. Moved by Member of Parliament Michael Clapham and backed by many other British legislators, the motion is "That this House congratulates the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, which represent 20 million workers in 114 countries on their lobby of Rio Tinto's Annual General Meeting on 13th May and on the publication of the Stakeholders' Report - Rio Tinto Tainted Titan, presented on the same day at the Stakeholders' Factual Meeting in the Methodist Central Hall, which examines the company's human rights record and scrutinises the environmental and health and safety performance of its operation; and calls on the company to honour the rights laid out in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights which it claims to have adopted into its business practice."
The Universal Declaration enshrines everybody's right to form and to join trade unions.
The mining multinational faced further embarrassment in the House of Commons last Thursday, when a parliamentary foreign affairs committee criticised Rio Tinto, British Petroleum, Shell and Unilever for failing to adopt policies that would prevent the exploitation of child labour. Conservative Member of Parliament Sir John Stanley, himself a former Rio Tinto employee, asked representatives of the four multinationals if they had a global minimum age for the hiring of staff. When told they did not, he condemned their "thoroughly woolly" policy on child labour.