Clear message from miners' rally
By Chris Spindler
SYDNEY — Miners' conditions will not be bargained away, Ross Peters, president of the Hunter Valley No. 1 lodge, told a crowd of 3000 miners, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union members and their supporters on July 16.
Peters said that union members were 100% solid in their fight to retain collective bargaining against Rio Tinto. He emphasised that messages of support and solidarity actions around the country and internationally had helped the resolve of the strikers.
Green Left Weekly sellers on the day collected $400 in donations for the miners.
The rally delivered a petition signed by all striking miners to Rio Tinto's Sydney office, stating that they want to retain collective bargaining and that the union is their sole representative in negotiations.
John Maitland, CFMEU joint national president, pointed out that when the dispute started six weeks ago after Rio Tinto offered individual contracts, only seven of 450 miners took up the offer. The contracts undermine many conditions won by generations of workers.
Maitland linked the dispute to the Howard government. "Howard, Reith and Costello have all expressed support for Rio Tinto. Their policies encourage people to scab on their fellow workers to the point where workers in the transport and waterfront industry have been threatened with the sack if they refuse to handle scab coal."
Many unions were represented at the rally, making it clear that the miners' campaign is a struggle for all workers.
Rio Tinto's international reputation and anti-union tactics were highlighted: employing scabs who moved "the first non-union coal for 100 years", and supporting the Papua New Guinea government's war against the Bougainvillean people.
Outside Rio Tinto's offices, Mike Kelly, vice-president of the No. 1 lodge, outlined the history of the dispute. The union had been having discussions with Rio Tinto for two years on an enterprise bargain before it took industrial action.
Kelly described Rio Tinto's long list of provocative actions, including backing out of a truce and not obeying Industrial Relations Commission orders.
There was a lukewarm response from rally participants to greetings from Labor leader Kim Beazley and his demand that Howard bring the two parties together to discuss matters.
Greetings from Greens Senator Bob Brown, talking about the importance of protecting hard-won working conditions, got a warmer response.