By Geoff Spencer
PERTH — A protracted battle is unfolding at Western Mining Corporation's Kambalda nickel and gold operations in the wake of 150 retrenchments announced on November 13. The sackings followed unionists' rejection of a company ultimatum on changes to working conditions and hours.
Following the sackings, the 600-plus members of the Australian Workers Union walked off the job for 36 hours. A later mass meeting called off the strike to put the matter before the WA Industrial Relations Commission, but talks broke down and further industrial action is being considered.
WMC claims to have been planning a $105 million update of its Kambalda operations subject to an overhaul of work practices. It is pressing for seven-day, round-the-clock operation, and says it will not proceed with expansion unless it gets its way.
The mine already operates for 24 hours daily, but on a seven and a half hour roster, with a break of half an hour between shifts for safety reasons, mainly to allow the ground to settle and fumes to clear.
The New Right ideologues in control of WMC are pressing for an end to the half-hour break, but have also mentioned 12-hour shifts. They are pressing the state government to change the Mines Regulation Act, which restricts working hours in the mining industry.
The AWU agreed, reluctantly, to seven-day operation, but the agreement collapsed when the company would not bend over wages. The union believes efficiency could be increased without longer shifts, but the company seems bent on confrontation, says AWU health and safety spokesperson Len Gandini.
Many of the Kambalda workers feel WMC is intent on retrenchments even if it gets continuous operation.
But it seems the company's real plan was to relocate workers to other mines, and it is doubtful that the supposedly new jobs promised in its full-page advertisements in the West Australian ever existed.
WMC's Kambalda expansion is one the ACTU included in its recent statements in favour of fast-tracking, a code term for dodging proper environmental assessment, Aboriginal land and sacred sites claims, and other legal requirements of new projects.
In this case, fast-tracking would include revision of WA's mining regulations and mineworkers' awards in the interests of higher profits. WMC makes no secret of this. It is openly using the stick of recession and low international minerals prices to bash concessions out of its workforce.