Rio Tinto sacks Hunter Valley miners

Rio Tinto sacks Hunter Valley miners

By James Vassilopoulos

Rio Tinto, the giant Anglo-Australian transnational, announced on October 20 the sacking of 115 coalminers at its Hunter Valley No. 1 open-cut mine. The retrenchments are aimed at undermining the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).

According to Tony Maher, the president of the CFMEU's mining division, 28 of 30 union delegates have been sacked.

This is the latest episode in the long-running battle between the CFMEU and Rio Tinto. In June 1997, coalminers began a six-week strike over enterprise bargaining. The company wanted to cut conditions and introduce individual contracts.

The CFMEU plans to challenge the sackings in the courts. It will argue in the Federal Court that the retrenchments should follow the "last-on first-off" rule. This rule stops victimisation of union militants by preventing the bosses choosing who will be sacked.

The "last-on first-off" rule should still be applied, the union argues, because the sackings were announced in February, when the rule was part of the award. The CFMEU will also argue before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission that the sackings were unfair and that the union was not consulted.

From GLW issue 338