By Paul Glenning
EMERALD, Qld — In the face of company goons posing as security guards, miners at ARCO's Gordonstone mine have had a small win. Management has been forced to back off from the more blatant intimidation and harassment it has used since it closed the mine and sacked the workers four weeks ago.
Despite management reportedly spending $2.5 million to employ 70 "security guards", miners and their families remain confident and disciplined.
ARCO has rejected a recommendation by the Industrial Relations Commission that it maintain the current rental rates of company houses occupied by sacked miners until the hearing of unfair dismissal claims. Rents will increase by more than $140 a week. Management is also pushing to have each of the 312 unfair dismissal claims heard individually.
Other tactics employed by ARCO include the old "divide and conquer". ARCO recently gave staff an all-expenses-paid trip to Yeppoon, 300 km east on the coast, for three days of "team building" sessions. Staff were quizzed on their attitude to unions and asked to volunteer to do the miners' work. Asked if cost cutting would result in staff losing their jobs, management replied, "Yes, and we would like those retrenched to leave with dignity".
The core of the dispute remains ARCO's campaign to break the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and other militant unions in the mining industry. Claims that wages and working conditions at the mine must be more "flexible" for the mine to be competitive are not genuine.
The six-year-old Gordonstone mine returned profits within its first five years — a rare event in the mining industry. In 1996, production levels were so high that a world record for coal cut in one week was established. So great was the tonnage produced that the stockpile blocked the entrance to the mine.
Eight months ago, the mine manager commented to the Industrial Relations Commission that "Gordonstone miners are second to none".
The mining community has now formed a women's auxiliary to support the miners and it is organising a rally and march for Saturday, November 1.
The auxiliary will letterbox the town with a leaflet that gives a brief history of the dispute and publicises the rally. Support is expected to be strong, with miners and their families coming from all over central Queensland.
Messages of support are welcome. The picket line can be phoned on 0418 759 765 or 0417 742 287 or faxed at 079 824 471.