By Jane Beckmann
HUNTER VALLEY — Last week the dispute at the Hunter Valley No 1 coal mine near Singleton escalated. Unable to defeat the miners, Rio Tinto has applied to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to be allowed to seek Supreme Court injunctions or damages against the union for pickets that have prevented coal trains reaching the mine.
The IRC deputy president, Justice Alan Boulton, issued Rio Tinto a certificate allowing it to seek injunctions or damages. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union then sought a stay of proceedings against the IRC, but this was refused by Justice Tony McIntyre. A second appeal by the CFMEU will be heard in the IRC this week.
The state government has intervened in the IRC hearing to support the miners, arguing that Boulton had not taken the necessary legal steps before issuing the certificate. As the CFMEU has pointed out, the certificates should not have been issued because the pickets were part of a legal enterprise bargaining strike at the mine and did not constitute a secondary boycott.
Around 15 union officials have been named by Rio Tinto in the application and, if it is allowed to go ahead, the company could sue them for millions of dollars in lost coal sales.
The federal industrial relations minister, Peter Reith, has encouraged the company to seek common law damages against the unionists.
Rio Tinto has now also applied to the IRC for orders to force train drivers from the NSW government's FreightCorp to cross the picket lines; until now the drivers have refused to cross on safety grounds.
A supplier to Rio Tinto is also taking action against its workers, who have refused to cross the picket to repair machinery at the mine.
After Boulton's decision, the ACTU called a meeting in Sydney of the maritime, rail and road transport union leaders and pledged to support the 430 miners involved in the strike.
The next day, meetings of union delegates around the country unanimously supported the strike. This gave the CFMEU a mandate to continue the fight with national support. The union's district vice-president, Mick Kelly, has stated publicly that this might include a national miners' strike.