Orano warns of financial problems at Niger uranium plant
The West African nation increasingly seeks new partners, such as Russia, in its mining sector.
Reuters reports BHP Billiton will face work stoppages at all its Queensland, Australia coal mine operations next week ahead of an employee vote on a contract, a workers union said on Monday.
The world’s largest miner has reached an impasse with the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) over wages and job security provisions; the union approved work stoppages at mines operated by the BHP Billiton- Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) in June.
Work stopped last week and this weekend at the Gregory and Crinum mines; the Saraji and Norwich Park mines saw work stoppages Sunday night and Monday.
“We are looking at escalating the actions at all the operations next week… they will potentially be shift-long or longer stoppages,” CFMEU spokesman Stephen Smyth said on Monday.
BHP’s proposed employee contract, which workers will vote on next week, would include a A$15,000 ($15,556) signing bonus paid over the course of a year as well as a 5 percent annual pay rise for three years, and some job security provisions, BHP said.
The Australian reported last week that BHP Mitsubishi’s decision to bypass a troika of unions by seeking a direct employee ballot on a new three-year enterprise agreement takes the world’s number one miner into deeply uncharted industrial relations waters.
The move comes after nine months of fruitless negotiations and 11 different offers – including annual pay rises of 5% and a $15,000 bonus – all of which were rejected by the unions which will now resume strikes.
About 3,500 workers belong to unions at the BHP Mistubishi mines out of a total workforce of around 10,000 and analysts have estimated that a full week of 12-hour stoppages could cut production by up to 1 million tonnes, Reuters reported.
