Strike resumes at Hunter Valley mine
By Alex Bainbridge
HUNTER VALLEY — Mine workers at Rio Tinto's Hunter Valley No. 1 coal mine resumed their strike on September 8 in response to continuing provocation by mine management.
The miners had returned to work seven weeks earlier in line with an Industrial Relations Commission recommendation.
During the negotiations since then, Rio Tinto has been intransigent, and provocative in the workplace. IRC deputy president Jan Marsh is reported to have said, "The company has given only qualified support [to IRC directions], stressing the view that it intends to continue to initiate changes [to workplace practices]."
The strike resumed after the company tried to force miners to work in the coal loading plant, contrary to IRC recommendations. This then merged into a protected strike action beginning on September 9, when the company again refused an IRC direction to continue negotiations.
Other provocations include arbitrary rostering and unfounded accusations against the miners in the media. On September 11, a striker was hit by the general manager's car.
The company has taken out injunctions under section 166A of the Workplace Relations Act against local and national union officials and delegates for the strike action.
Rio Tinto has shown no signs of backing away from its aim to break the union, move to individual contracts and erode workers' conditions.
"It looks to us like there is a plot being hatched between Rio Tinto and the federal government to drag our union and the Maritime Union of Australia into a knock-'em-down, drag-'em-out battle", CFMEU general president John Maitland said on September 9.
"That's not what this union wants, but if they want to continue down this path, we won't back away", he said.