More than 200 coal miners in Tahmoor, southwest of Sydney, were locked out with no pay, on February 9.
During a workplace dispute over job security and safety conditions, the miners held a six-hour strike on February 7, followed by a 24-hour stoppage on February 8. Their employer Xstrata then told the miners to not come back to work until February 14.
The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) has been trying to negotiate an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) with Xstrata for about 16 months.
CFMEU official Wayne McAndrew told the February 9 Illawarra Mercury: "All we are asking from Xstrata is a deal that delivers fair wages and conditions of employment including clauses that protect job security and maintain safety standards at Tahmoor mine."
Xstrata says it has offered miners a 25% pay rise over the next four years, but this is contested by the workers. The CFMEUs Graham White said the company had tied wage rises to the stripping away of basic entitlements. He told the Mercury: "They're putting their allowances into their base rate. It's all about entitlements — at the end of the day we want a fair deal."
The locked-out workers promised to continue the struggle. One described the executive of Xstrata as "narcissist, industrial psychopaths" to the February 10 Southern Highland News. Another miner said: "At the Ulan mine last year they sacked blokes and then re-hired some the next day and got contractors in to replace the rest of them.
"How can we trust them after seeing what they have done in their other mines around Australia?"