Vickery miners defy IRC

Wednesday, May 15, 1996 - 10:00

By Jennifer Thompson

Workers at CRA-owned Novacoal's Vickery mine are still on strike after the federal Industrial Relations Commission arbitrated on April 24 in favour of management, allowing the introduction of 12-hour shifts for a six-month trial. The strike against 12-hour shifts has kept the mine shut for more than eight months.

Explaining the workers' decision to stay out, CFMEU general vice-president Tony Maher told Green Left Weekly that the commission's decision was "the one thing that would not be accepted" by the union.

CRA took the case to the IRC as part of its anti-union strategy. Knowing that 12-hour shifts in an already dangerous industry were unacceptable to workers, it asked the IRC to allow the introduction of the shifts and the removal from the award of clauses giving preference to unionists. The IRC disallowed the removal of unionist preference clauses.

The final terms of the interim award are now to be settled by written submissions to the IRC, said Maher, and the CFMEU will appeal "to the High Court or higher". The option now for the company, he said, was to use scab labour against the strike. Asked about the feeling on the picket line, he said the picket had doubled in numbers and vigilance.

Since April 24, Novacoal management has written individually to striking workers, asking them to return to work on 12-hour shifts. "They got no takers", said Maher. The company is now writing to 800 unsuccessful job applicants offering work at the mine, "people who weren't even given an interview", he said.

The CFMEU is calling for negotiations to resolve the dispute, something Novacoal has been refusing since mid-December. The ball is now in the company's court, said Maher. It had the option of trying to resolve the dispute or escalating it into a battle with the whole trade union movement.

Coal miners from the CFMEU Saraji lodge, based in Dysart, decided on May 7, after hearing of the status of the Vickery dispute and the company's threats, that if Novacoal did try to restart the mine using scabs, 20 members would be made available for seven days to strengthen the picket line. Further assistance would be considered if it was needed, said the lodge president, Steven Pierce. He has asked other CFMEU lodges in Queensland and NSW to make a similar commitment.