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BHP Billiton would not be willing to negotiate with the unions on strike at its coal mines in Australia and had said the battle is “likely to get tougher before it’s over”, an e-mail published by ABC’s PM reveals.
In the e-mail BHP Billiton coal CEO Marcus Randolph said the dispute was non-negotiable — “not now, not next month, and not next year,” he said.
According to the ABC, Randolph added the battle with unions on BMA’s Queensland coal mines was “the fight we had to have”.
In response to Randolph’s comments, CFMEU president Tony Maher released a statement saying the e-mail proves that BHP “never prepared to listen to its workers in Central Queensland”. CFMEU is Australia’s main trade union in construction, forestry and forest products, mining and energy production.
“This shows the company went in with a strategy to purposely ignore its workforce, to enter negotiations with no intention whatsoever of listening to employee concerns,” Maher added.
According to Australian Mining, BHP said the company “was committed to negotiating with the union and had already made progress on most of the concerns.”
“The company cannot, and will not, diminish its rights and obligations to manage the business, nor will we accept productivity-destroying arrangements as currently proposed by the unions,” it said.
“Strike action will not change our position, as has been the case for the past eight months.”
Last month, thousands of workers at seven of BHP’s mines in Queensland’s Bowen Basin launched a crusade of labour actions affecting the mines operated through the BMA joint venture between BHP and Mitsubishi Corporation. The industrial action has disrupted world supplies of coal and has not only affected mining, but also manufacturing and electrical unions.
The main stumbling block between the union and BHP, the world’s largest mining company, is not wages, but proposed changes to work practices, along with a range of other issues including housing and union representation.
7 Comments
Mr Crook
I say kick these big companies off of it everywhere around the world and let the state or country mange the business and give the profit to the people it belongs too…The WORKER! Probably make millionaires out of them.
Greg
The big companies are the ones wwho make the investment, take the risk and create the jobs – welcome to the real world
Bill Jackson
I want to see what the unions are getting now, in wages and fringe benefits and what they are asking for as well as the company offer. Only then can I judge what side I am on. I am sick and tired of the lies from both sides. I want the negotiations aired IN PUBLIC. I am not on the side of fat-cat Company men, nor am I on the side of their opposites – the fat cat union men.
I am in Canada, the the unions here get very high wages compared to the average, and it all seems to settle equitably. The exception was Vale and Sudbury and the union demands were outrageously high and only moderated when Vale dug in (as did the union) and a middle ground was found.
Taking on the Chin
I am glad BHP never slithered their way into buying out Saskatchewan Potash Corporation back a short will ago. Bigger resource conglomerates are pigs at the trough with little disrespect for the little man.
Unionist united.
One wonders who is the worst. The company itself or the a#s* lickers who do their bullying for them. Oh well, one consolation, when the job is done invariably so to is their job not to mention the friends they lose in the process. That is if they had any in the first place.
gsossong
If the union is demanding more money or benefits, then so be it. Hold your ground if you think that you are under paid, and others can see it too. But if the union is demanding that their safety official has control of the mining production and operation, then it is the demise of the union.
You can’t run a business and be profitable, if you are tied to someone elses opinion of how to do the job. Small or large business, there is no difference. Ask any small business man that has invested his own money to make a profit and employ some friends and neighbors…
If you think a job is not safe, and your fellow man agrees with you, then it is the responsibility of management to alter the job to make it safe; and I have never seen any manager ask me to do anything that they would do. But if you think a job is not safe, and a line of your fellow men do not agree with you, then get out off the job and out of the way; for there is a line of men behind you that will do that job safely. There is risk in all jobs, and you can’t make every job 100 percent safe for any and all harm, and I surely would not want a non-management employee making production/operation decisions that will effect my profitability; and I would not be in business long…
This is the problem of unions… They are great to help men and women get good paying and reasonably safe jobs, establish safety standards and training for employees, and negotiate better wages and benefits. And they sign their own death certificate when they attempt to control a business’s ability to control the operation and production… Example, the US Coal Miner…
chris
If you think mine management are there for the worker you are in another world if it wasnt for union check inspectors we would have had alot more mining deaths pull your head out of the sand mine management only care about profits you are only a pay role number