Union victory over BHP

May 30, 2001
Issue 

BY WILL WILLIAMS

WOLLONGONG — Unions claimed victory over BHP in last week's dispute over individual contracts and workplace safety. After a three-day strike, BHP was forced to delay its contracting out of protective services workers at its Port Kembla steel plant.

More than 4000 workers walked off the job on May 22, over BHP's appointment of the company Serco to run the protective services department and Serco's plans to employ people on individual contracts. Workers had been sent Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) by Serco and were given until May 28 to accept the contracts.

At a mass meeting of combined unions on May 22, amidst strong calls for an indefinite stoppage, more than 2500 steelworkers voted for a 48-hour stoppage. Picket lines at all BHP entrances were set up shortly after the meeting. The pickets were organised and supported by the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Australian Workers Union (AWU), the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), and other unions associated with the South Coast Labour Council, including the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).

At the picket lines, AMWU industrial officer Mark Dal Molin told Green Left Weekly: "AWA's here mean individuals pitched against a multinational trying to cut a fair deal, which you can't do, especially when they're throwing solicitors at you. Unless you have effective representation from the union movement and bargaining collectively, individual workers haven't got a chance of getting a reasonable wages and conditions outcome."

"The outcome we want", Dal Molin added, "is for BHP to back off with their outsourcing. We want the companies providing the outsourcing to take AWAs off the table. They're offering lower pay rates, which they argue are going to make them more competitive. But for workers' wages and conditions, we see it as a spiral race to the bottom."

At the mass meeting on May 24, workers voted to extend the strike for at least another 24 hours. That night, the NSW Industrial Relations Commission recommended BHP delay the implementation of the Serco contract and continue its existing arrangement for providing protective services pending discussions between the company and the unions.

A mass meeting of workers the next day voted to return to work at 10am, in the belief that their industrial action had proved very successful. Unions are now in discussions with BHP and Serco regarding a collective agreement.

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