6 September, 2011Australian union members of three trade union organisations are livid with the announcement that BlueScope Steel will lop 1,400 jobs in New South Wales and Victoria. Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU), the Australian Workers Union (AWU), and the Electrical Trades Union of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (ETU-CEPU) met in Wollongong on 25 August and sternly moved to resist all restructuring until further labour-management consultations can occur.
AUSTRALIA: August 29 in Canberra, the unions met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and urged her Labour Government to launch an inquiry into Australia's manufacturing crisis.
BlueScope, formed in 2002 when BHP Steel was spun off in the BHP and Billiton merger, announced on 22 August that it was shedding nearly half of its Port Kembla Steelworks staff of 3,100 and another 200 jobs at a hot-strip steel mill in
Last Thursday's heated union meeting came when workers also learned that senior managers of the troubled company are awarding themselves A$3.05 million in bonuses, including A$721,000 for CEO Paul O'Malley. The company recently posted an operating loss of A$118 million plus an asset write-down of A$900 million, mainly from a rising Australian dollar, high raw material costs, and depressed order books.
The BlueScope job cuts come at a time when booming Australian resource exports are driving up currency exchange rates to the detriment of Australia goods and product manufacturing. BlueScope is chopping 1,200 full-time and contract labour jobs by idling a blast furnace, coking battery, slab caster, and oxygen-based steelmaking vessel at Port Kembla south of Sydney, and the 200 steel-rolling jobs on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.
Speaking at Port Kembla the day BlueScope made the announcement, AMWU National Secretary Dave Oliver said, "The benefits of the mining boom come with very big downsides and 1,400 families have learnt today the hard way about the downsides. "Today is a massive wake-up call for to state and federal governments to take more action on this issue."
The full ICEM release is available on the ICEM Web-site (http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4627-BlueScope-Steel-Sackings-Reveal-Crisis-in-Australian-Manufacturing )
BlueScope, formed in 2002 when BHP Steel was spun off in the BHP and Billiton merger, announced on 22 August that it was shedding nearly half of its Port Kembla Steelworks staff of 3,100 and another 200 jobs at a hot-strip steel mill in
Last Thursday's heated union meeting came when workers also learned that senior managers of the troubled company are awarding themselves A$3.05 million in bonuses, including A$721,000 for CEO Paul O'Malley. The company recently posted an operating loss of A$118 million plus an asset write-down of A$900 million, mainly from a rising Australian dollar, high raw material costs, and depressed order books.
The BlueScope job cuts come at a time when booming Australian resource exports are driving up currency exchange rates to the detriment of Australia goods and product manufacturing. BlueScope is chopping 1,200 full-time and contract labour jobs by idling a blast furnace, coking battery, slab caster, and oxygen-based steelmaking vessel at Port Kembla south of Sydney, and the 200 steel-rolling jobs on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.
Speaking at Port Kembla the day BlueScope made the announcement, AMWU National Secretary Dave Oliver said, "The benefits of the mining boom come with very big downsides and 1,400 families have learnt today the hard way about the downsides. "Today is a massive wake-up call for to state and federal governments to take more action on this issue."
The full ICEM release is available on the ICEM Web-site (http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4627-BlueScope-Steel-Sackings-Reveal-Crisis-in-Australian-Manufacturing )