By Jennifer Thompson
Award workers at CRA-owned Comalco's Weipa bauxite mine and kaolin plant went on strike again on March 27 over the company's insistence that they individually sign an enterprise agreement. Unionists won the right in February to receive the same level of pay and benefits through a collective bargain as workers on individual staff contracts, provided they agreed to the same working conditions.
The company's insistence on eliminating union involvement in its dealings with workers and several instances of discrimination and attacks on award workers restarted the strike, CFMEU lodge secretary Nigel Gould told Green Left Weekly.
A couple of days into the strike, Comalco withdrew the demand for individual signatures. But striking workers are determined to stay out this time until all the outstanding disputes are resolved, Gould said. Two unionists in particular had been badly treated since the return to work, and the company had refused to use award grievance procedures or allow them union representation.
One unionist was ostracised by non-union workers and assaulted by a pro-company plant operator. Another worker who is also a member of the industrial site committee was assaulted by a non-union worker who was dismissed by his superintendent but then reinstated on the order of the managing director. Both union members were denied union representation in pursuing their grievances.
CFMEU joint national president John Maitland, after meeting with strikers over the weekend, will be taking the grievances to the IRC on April 1.
Also still unresolved is the issue of back pay. The company has offered amounts to individual workers that fall far short — up to $10,000 — of what was expected from the calculation method discussed by unions and the company.