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Unions representing tens of thousands of workers in Australia’s major iron ore hub are preparing to negotiate potential wage rises with the biggest mining companies in the world, including BHP Group Ltd. and Rio Tinto Ltd.
Representatives from the Western Mine Workers Alliance — a coalition between the Mining and Energy Union and Australian Workers Union — have visited mine sites in Western Australia’s Pilbara district since Wednesday to survey members over a campaign to raise wages and lock in new contracts, an alliance representative said Monday.
It has been more than a decade since unions last negotiated collective worker agreements at mines for iron ore. The material is Australia’s biggest export earner and the nation accounts for 56% of seaborne supply of the crucial steelmaking ingredient.
The union representatives have mainly focused their meetings at BHP worksites, although on Saturday they also attended the Western Turner Syncline project, owned by Rio’s Hammersley Iron Ltd. unit, according to the union spokesperson.
The unions initiated the bargaining under new legislation that doesn’t require them to show evidence of workers’ support at the mine sites, a BHP spokesperson said. The mining giant will comply with its obligations under the new section of the Fair Work Act and commence bargaining.
The unions appeared to have taken advantage of recent changes to labor laws to gain access to BHP worksites, Minerals Council of Australia chief executive officer Tania Constable said in a statement.
“It is the first step in a union power grab by unions who have boasted for years about ‘re-unionizing the Pilbara’,” she said.
A Rio Tinto spokesperson declined to comment but referred to the Minerals Council of Australia’s statement.
(By Paul-Alain Hunt)
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