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16 January, 2000The Australian multinational BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary) has changed its tune, from one of a "cooperative approach with the unions" to that of assaulting workers' rights.
AUSTRALIA: Following the arrival last year from the USA of a new chief executive officer at BHP, which is Australia's largest company, the reasonably good relationship between the unions and the giant multinational has taken a dramatic turn for the worse.
The company, which deals in steel, iron ore, coal, oil and gas, with significant operations in the U.S., New Zealand and elsewhere, has decided to take advantage of the extreme right-wing government's anti-union legislation and try to force employees in the iron ore operations in Western Australia out of collective agreements and to accept individual contracts. Although under present Australian law this is possible, a majority of the workers clearly want to stay with the collective agreement.
In protest against BHP's action, the unions -- the AMWU, CEPU and the AWU, which are all affiliated to the IMF -- have taken stop-work action in the last few weeks at every BHP-owned site in Australia in the steel and related industries. The unions' actions are illegal, but they have opted for such drastic steps in order to protect their collective contracts and the right to negotiate their terms of employment with management as free agents.
In order to bring further pressure with regard to this dispute on BHP, which has so far stood firm, the IMF has contacted another international trade union secretariat and will coordinate international action against the company. As most of the iron ore from BHP's Western Australian operations goes to Japan and South Korea, an attempt will be made to disrupt their shipments to these countries.
The company, which deals in steel, iron ore, coal, oil and gas, with significant operations in the U.S., New Zealand and elsewhere, has decided to take advantage of the extreme right-wing government's anti-union legislation and try to force employees in the iron ore operations in Western Australia out of collective agreements and to accept individual contracts. Although under present Australian law this is possible, a majority of the workers clearly want to stay with the collective agreement.
In protest against BHP's action, the unions -- the AMWU, CEPU and the AWU, which are all affiliated to the IMF -- have taken stop-work action in the last few weeks at every BHP-owned site in Australia in the steel and related industries. The unions' actions are illegal, but they have opted for such drastic steps in order to protect their collective contracts and the right to negotiate their terms of employment with management as free agents.
In order to bring further pressure with regard to this dispute on BHP, which has so far stood firm, the IMF has contacted another international trade union secretariat and will coordinate international action against the company. As most of the iron ore from BHP's Western Australian operations goes to Japan and South Korea, an attempt will be made to disrupt their shipments to these countries.