On April 29, BHP announced that the Newcastle steelworks, the Sydney wire mill and the Geelong rod mill will all close by the end of 1999, resulting in the loss of several thousand jobs. Green Left Weekly's ALEX BAINBRIDGE spoke to GEOFF PAYNE, a rigger in the Australian Workers Union at BHP's Newcastle steelworks. Payne has worked at BHP since 1979 and is a founding member of the Democratic Socialist Party.
"Steelworkers in Newcastle have launched a determined effort to defend their jobs and industry", Payne said. On May 2 a combined unions mass stop-work meeting voted for a 24-hour strike and appealed to other BHP steel sites around Australia for support.
The meeting voted to send a delegation of rank-and-file members accompanying union organisers to the next ACTU executive meeting, to take a message calling for a national 24-hour strike in all the BHP steel sites on May 7.
Payne outlined the sort of campaign needed: "Workers could win this fight to save jobs if we waged a strong industrial campaign based on the full strength of the unions. This has to be backed up with the demand that if BHP can't profitably run its Newcastle steelworks, then the whole steel division should be brought under public control.
"This is what we pointed out when the closure of the steelworks looked likely during the steel 'crisis' of 1982. At the time, oversupply of steel, in the context of a world depression, led to BHP threatening mass dismissals. In just a few weeks we were able to convince 20% of workers in elections in the ironworkers union to vote for the Militant Action Campaign ticket. Our main demand was the nationalisation of BHP. Many in the left ignored or attacked us because they preferred the strategy of electing the Hawke Labor government. Look where that has got us.
"Workers led a march on Canberra, where thousands of angry unionists rocked the doors of parliament. All of this contributed to the fall of the Fraser government. Once elected in 1983, the Hawke government implemented the Steel Industry Plan. While this was supposed to save jobs, in fact all it did was rescue BHP profits and cause a steady decline in jobs."
The Newcastle steelworks employed 11,400 people in 1982 and employs fewer than 3000 today.
"Despite the cutbacks, output today remains at the same level as 1982, because union officials essentially complied with BHP's demands for a multi-skilled work force and the exchange of modern machinery for jobs", Payne said.
"The unions should have defended the interests of workers and campaigned for a shorter work week without loss of pay to share the work around and improve conditions. Instead of succumbing to BHP's blackmail, militant unionists demanded that BHP open the books to trade union auditors.
"This response remains relevant today. They claim they aren't profitable, but this is ridiculous. In fact, they're calculating that they can make more profits somewhere else. This is going to come at tremendous cost to thousands and thousands of workers at BHP and in the rest of Newcastle. BHP has been lying to us.
"As a socialist, I believe that it is unreasonable for multinational companies to destroy people's lives like this simply so they can achieve a marginal increase in profits. If BHP can't guarantee our jobs (as well as decent social and environmental standards) it should be brought under public control."
The ALP federal MP for Newcastle, Allen Morris, has proposed that BHP sell the Newcastle steelworks as a going concern. "Why should we have to buy the steelworks and give BHP money which would be better spent making the plant cleaner and technologically more efficient?" Payne asked.
"After the announcement of the closure, the value of BHP shares increased by a billion dollars. Individual BHP directors added hundreds of thousands of dollars to their personal fortunes overnight.
"At the very least, BHP should be presented with a bill of up to a billion dollars to pay to clean up the environmental mess caused by the plant."