Rio Tinto: Australian coalmine disputes escalate: Knock-on effects in Asia as supplies dwindle?

ICEM Update, No. 56, 1 October 1997

Several thousand Australian mining and building workers took to the streets of Sydney today in a loud, colourful protest against union-busting by Rio Tinto, the world's biggest private mining corporation.

In Japan, meanwhile, unions are pressing some of Rio Tinto's biggest coal customers to help change the anti-worker policies of the global minerals giant.

Strike action resumed at the company's Hunter Valley No. 1 coalmine in Australia on 8 September when Rio Tinto spurned official efforts to broker a continued truce.

Rio Tinto has been subject to a series of industrial disputes in Australia. The central issue has been the company's attempts to de-unionise its coal mining workforce and end collective bargaining. It has already pushed through de-unionisation in most of its non-coal operations.

A protracted dispute at Hunter Valley No. 1 had been put on hold this July after the company finally agreed to negotiate with the miners' unions. The firm had previously tried to end collective bargaining and impose individual employment contracts, but the Hunter Valley miners went on strike over the issue and signed a petition indicating that they wanted their unions to continue bargaining on their behalf.

A truce was arranged by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), but broke down when Rio Tinto started ignoring key AIRC recommendations and made it clear that it was not interested in further mediation.

The Sydney marchers today were led by a contingent of women and children from the Family Support Group that is providing backup to more than 400 mineworkers currently on strike at Hunter Valley No. 1.

The women and children had earlier protested outside the head office of Rio Tinto (New South Wales) and had presented demands for recognition of union rights to the Managing Director of the company, Kim Tronson.

The march concluded outside the Australian Prime Minister's Sydney office where a series of speakers led by the President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Jennie George, condemned the right-wing federal Howard government for colluding with multi nationals to destroy the union rights of working Australians.

In a related development, the mineworkers in the Northern District of Australian mining and allied workers' union the CFMEU - employed in mines near Hunter Valley No. 1 - started a 72-hour strike from 15.00 local time today. This involves approximately 9, 000 mineworkers and over one-third of national coal output. Australian coal production totals 190 million tonnes per year.

This action has been taken because Rio Tinto has now served writs on a number of union officials in connection with picket line activity.

In a concession to those companies that have framework agreements with the union, committing them to a co-operative relationship, the union will supply labour to load trains at the mines of framework companies so there will be no loss of continuity of sup ply for such companies.

But Rio Tinto's own supplies, and its profits, are now at serious risk. During the strike this June and July, the global minerals giant was forced to buy coal from its competitors in order to fulfil its supply contracts with customers.

In response to the escalation of the dispute, the Premier of the state of New South Wales, Bob Carr, called an emergency meeting for 17.00 Sydney time today, to which the CFMEU and Rio Tinto were summoned.

At global level, the CFMEU is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Because of Rio Tinto's anti-union stance in many parts of the world, the ICEM has made the company a p riority target for global union networking.

In Portugal, for example, industrial relations remain tense at Rio Tinto's majority-owned Neves Corvo mine after the recent ending of a strike. Unions met management there on 29 September in an attempt to move forward a new agreement that has so far been stalled by the company. Management had promised to employ 100 additional workers in return for agreement on the introduction of seven-day round-the-clock working. But according to the Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias, only 60 workers have been taken on so far. The company says it will hire another 40 by the beginning of 1998.

In Japan, electricity generators are among the major Rio Tinto customers who are now anxiously monitoring developments in the Australian dispute. The ICEM-affiliated Confederation of Electric Power Industry Workers' Unions of Japan (DENRYOKUSOREN) has ask ed Japanese power companies to press Rio Tinto to get back around the table with the CFMEU and negotiate a speedy end to the strike.

Australia is the main source for Rio Tinto's coal supplies to Asia. 47 percent of Australia's coal exports go to Japan, and Australian coal constitutes more than half of Japan's coal supplies. Rio Tinto delivers coal to virtually all of Japan's electricit y generators and steel mills. A prolonged new dispute at Rio Tinto in Australia will therefore hit both the Australian and the Japanese economies - and could have knock-on effects in other parts of Asia.

The Australian mineworkers must and will prevail, insisted ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe. Theirs is a crucial struggle for industrial workers worldwide and they will receive the full support of our global membership. Rio Tinto must learn that the f uture for any global company lies not in confrontation but in cooperation with workers and their trade unions - locally, nationally and globally.