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Several hundred union members rallied in Melbourne, Australia, today outside the headquarters of BHP, the minerals, metals and oil multinational. 
 
They were protesting over a radical policy shift in BHP's Australian iron ore operations. Management there has abandoned its traditional cooperative approach to industrial relations in favour of a hard-line policy that denies its workers the right to bargain collectively. 
 
BHP issued its 1,000 iron ore workers in the Pilbara, Western Australia, with individual staff contracts, saying it was not prepared to negotiate a new collective agreement. The company had previously operated under a collective agreement negotiated with unions. 
 
The individual staff contracts were delivered to workers' homes on November 11. BHP decreed that workers must either sign the contracts or stay on their expired agreement. Sticking with the expired agreement would mean forgoing wage and superannuation rises and lump-sum sick leave payouts. Under the individual contracts, BHP would be able to impose workplace changes and alter pay scales without having to negotiate with unions. BHP offered workers a bonus of three months' back pay if they signed by December 3. 
 
The Secretary-elect of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Greg Combet, said the BHP iron ore division had moved sharply away from its successful cooperative approach to industrial relations, and was aping the hard-nosed American-style tactics that characterised its competitor, Rio Tinto. 
"Not only is BHP now displaying great disregard for the right of employees to bargain collectively," Combet pointed out, "it is adopting discriminatory practices against one section of its workforce. BHP is offering these Pilbara workers 14 percent superannuation only if they sign an individual contract, and yet BHP already pays its steel workers the same amount under a collective agreement negotiated with the unions. 
 
"If BHP Steel can work out a collective agreement," Combet asked, "why can't BHP Iron Ore do the same? Unions and their members in the Pilbara are more than willing to talk about efficiencies and flexibility to boost BHP's domestic and international competitiveness in iron ore." 
 
BHP's individual staff contract offer came just weeks after conservative lawyers and journalists published articles in the Australian financial press urging the company to drop "its union culture". Some industrial relations experts are tipping that the move by BHP is a forerunner of similar forays into other areas, such as the coal and steel divisions.

BHP's Anti-Bargaining Stance Sparks Australian Protests

Labour activist Tian Chua was released from police custody in Malaysia on 5 December. He is understood to be in reasonably good health. 
 
The news was welcomed by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which had been pressing for Tian's release (see ICEM News release 95/1998). 
 
It is not clear whether he will still face charges concerning demonstrations, publications or similar issues.

Labour Activist Tian Chua Released In Malaysia

The CEP of Canada has chosen Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. as lead company for paper industry bargaining in eastern Canada. CEP represents 4,200 workers at 14 Abitibi worksites from Ontario to Newfoundland. The agreement with Montreal based Abitibi will be used as a pattern for talks with other paper companies covering 21,000 CEP members. The current labour agreement in pulp and paper in the eastern half of the country expires 30 April.

Abitibi Chosen as Lead in Canadian CEP Paper Bargaining

The National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa has joined two other unions, including affiliate CEPPWAWU, and filed a formal application under Section 77 of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) to investigate the strong Rand and the adverse affect it has had regarding job loss. The union seeks a tripartite summit to find an intervention strategy. “The appreciating currency has had a negative impact in the mining industry. The mining sector has shed numerous jobs and is intent on cutting further,” said NUM Gen. Sec. Gwede Mantashe in a South African report.

NUM and CEPPWAWU in South Africa Protest Strong Rand

ICEM Vice President and Women’s Vice-Chair Binda Pandey was arrested 10 April in Katmandu, Nepal, for protesting with the pro-democracy masses against the country’s absolute monarchy. Early April in Nepal spawned several mass protests that resulted in some 4,000 arrests with royal troops and security forces using tear gas, rubber bullets and baton charges to disperse protestors. Nepal became a total monarchy in October 2002 when King Gyanendra dissolved Parliament and took absolute powers. Pandey, a leader of the Nepal Independent Chemical and Iron Workers’ Union, was released following her 10 April arrest and she thanks the ICEM and all affiliates for support. She also reports that unionists from GEFONT that were detained were also released.

Nepal Arrests ICEM Women’s Leader Binda Pandey

The ICEM sent a letter of condolences to the families and colleagues of mineworkers who perished in an 11 April gas explosion in western Siberia. The letter was sent through the Russian Independent Coal Employees’’ Union (Rosugleprof). The explosion trapped and killed 44 miners some 600 meters down a mine in the village of Taizhina, Osinniki, in Russia’s Kuzbass mining region.

Explosion in Western Siberia Kills 44 Russian Miners

Shell Employees Union of Batangas, an independent and fearless rank-and-file trade union at Shell in the Philippines, threatened to strike a refinery in Batangas Province over the company’s proposal to place a moratorium on wage increases. In mid-September, the Philippines labour secretary took jurisdiction of the dispute, a move objected to by the 100-member union. Shell has placed the future of the 100,000 b/d refinery in jeopardy and the refinery’s general manager said at the weekend that it suffers from insignificant investment by the super-major. Shell’s Tabangao refinery is one of only two refineries in the Philippines.

Philippines Union Threatens to Take On Shell Over Wages

20 October will go down as a day of death in China’s coal mines. Four disasters found 123 dead, including—at last count—77 miners of state-owned Zhengzhou Group at Xinmi, Henan province, the worst mine catastrophe in recent years. At the weekend, 71 are still missing from the 20 October gas explosion that tore through several shafts at one of Zhengzhou’s larger coalmines. Two other gas blasts added to the death count. Five were killed, 8 still missing at a blast in the southern province of Guizhou and near the southwestern Chinese city of Chongquing, another 12 perished in a natural gas explosion. The fourth 20 October disaster occurred at the Desheng coal mine in Wu’an, Hebei province, when flooding cased the deaths of 29 miners.

Day of Death in Chinese Coal Mines, 20 October 2004

The All Pakistan Trade Union Federation held a mass rally and march across several industrial areas of Lahore. The demonstration was against government policies restricting wage hikes and collective bargaining, as well as rampant retrenchments and price hikes. Similar protest meetings were held in several industrial cities across Pakistan. The protests continued with a major march in Rawalpindi on 6 October.

Pakistan Labour Marches Against Government’s Labour Stand

A week-long strike by ICEM affiliate Associated Mineworkers of Zimbabwe (AMWZ) ended 13 October with agreement by the Chamber of Mines to enter arbitration over a wage dispute. Specifically, to enter into wage talks quarterly, as promised by the employers’ group early this year. AMWZ won a ruling last month that financial incentives granted mine owners by the government and reserve bank must be passed to workers. The Chamber was appealing that ruling, thus the strike by 25,000 workers in coal, platinum, chrome, gold and other minerals. The AMWZ is insistent on quarterly wage bargaining since Zimbabwe’s inflation rate runs at near 600%.

Zimbabwe’s Miners Come to Terms’s with Chamber of Mines

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