Pilbara workers attack BHP over AWAs

June 13, 2007 - Hundreds of mine workers at BHP Billiton's Pilbara iron ore operations have protested over "belligerent and overbearing treatment" from management after being put on Australian Workplace Agreements.

A petition at BHP Billiton's iron ore mine at Mt Newman in Western Australia has been signed by over 200 people, complaining about an "atmosphere of intimidation and victimisation" surrounding workers who have signed Australian Workplace Agreements...
The miners say the were feared threats, stress, low morale and risks to safety as miners have been placed in areas had no experience. Up to 10 per cent of the total workforce at BHP's Mount Whaleback mine in Western Australia - believed to be about 2000 - had joined the protest.

Among the 200 miners alleged to have signed the petition, six spoke publicly about their treatment by management under AWAs.

Gary Martin, who has never been a union member is the supervisor of Newman's mobile equipment workshop. "I was considering just leaving. It's common enough that if you're not happy in a work environment you'll leave. This is a little bit different in that if I did leave and I happened to see on the news that someone was seriously injured or killed here, then I'd feel pretty bad about that," Mr Martin told the ABC

Most blamed a company culture under AWAs, the Howard Government's individual employment agreements, which have been spread to 80per cent of BHP's iron ore workforce.

Tony Maher, National President of the CFMEU said: "At Mount Newman, they are dominated by AWAs, people don't have the protection of a union, they're not able to speak up on safety concerns. What's happening is the management are ruin ruling by fear. They're intimidating people, daring them not to raise safety issues."

The petition says employees have been continually "looking over their shoulders" and fear harsh treatment by management. It says those who complain about safety are considered obstructionist and resistant to change, not champions of higher standards.

BHP's Ian Ashby said he was disappointed if employees felt they could not report safety incidents because of feared repercussions. He encouraged employees to report safety concerns directly to him.

Excavator Operator, Aaron Greenhalgh, believes that AWA workers are not reporting incidents. "These are blokes that are coming back to these wind rows and breaching it, tipping the tyres through and tipping loads and carrying on. That's a near miss, that's a potential, that truck could be going over. Apart from that, they're driving off and the next bloke comes along and he could be falling in that same hole..."

Allen Zadow, another AWA employee recently quit as foreman over his treatment in reporting a safety hazard that hadn't been fixed. "A lot of mine incidents aren't reported, full stop. Just ignored," he told the ABC.

After he filed a report on his computer, Mr Zadow was called into the manager's office and asked to explain himself. "It wasn't a very pleasant experience. I mean, I went into a meeting with five other people, me being the outsider and having five different people, all superintendent above, trying to intimidate me..."

The Federal Government says it has referred the matter to its workplace watchdog. Issues of health and safety are looked after at a state level. WA Employment Protection Minister Michelle Roberts says she is concerned by the claims and an investigation is under way to see if they can be substantiated.

ACTU secretary and federal Labor candidate Greg Combet said it was clear AWAs were the cause of the safety worries. "The trouble with the AWAs is that it leaves people one out on their own up against an international mining company and when it comes to a safety issue people one out on their own can't deal with it, feel intimidated," he said. "It underlines the importance of people being able to join together to collectively bargain because that's the only way you can have a say about something as important as safety.

"And it also underlines the importance of the freedom for people to be represented by a union, if that's what they want," he said in The West.

The CFMEU says recent ABS data (6306, Feb 2007) underlines that Australian mining does NOT rely on AWAs – just 31% of workers in metal ore mines, and only 16% of the mining industry’s workforce are on AWAs. Mining relies more on common law contracts (as provided for in ALP policy) rather than on AWAs. About 55% of metal ore miners are on common law contracts.

Sources:
730 Report
AM
ABC News
The Australian
ABC
The West
CFMEU

Street Action - Blocking the G8 - Germany

JUNE 6, 2007: Tens of thousands of people have marched through the north-east German port of Rostock, 25 kilometres from the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm, where invited leaders of the world's richest nations will begin their three-day G8 meeting. More blockades have been planned to disrupt the conference of global leaders.

Why block the G8 meeting? "Neoliberal capitalist globalisation – for which the G8 stands – increases the gap between the poor and the rich every day. The G8 claim they are combating global destitution, whereas they and those whose interests they represent are responsible for hunger, wars and environmental destruction.

That is why we will deny the G8 any legitimacy. We are not addressing the G8 with any demands, but say "No!". In order to express our clear "No!", we will not simply demonstrate. Instead we will actively thwart the G8 and block the access roads to the meeting place, which is used by numerous diplomats, translators and supply vehicles in order to get to Heiligendamm where the G8 summit will take place..."

On Monday, June 4th, anti-G8 actions and protest focussed on the demands for freedom of movement and equal rights for all.

Several decentralised actions took place: a demonstration with several thousand participants at the Immigration Centre in Rostock and another at the Sonnenblumen House in Lichtenhagen, where the Nazis attacked refugees in 1992. These were followed by a big march and rally in Rostock, which police restrictions and delays, but finally made it to the final rally at the city harbour. Decentralised actions also took place in other cities throughout the world.

On Sunday 3rd June, organisers said 80,000 people had taken part in a big demonstration, while Police put the figure at 30,000. Police sent in two anti-riot squads which led to clashes. "There is no justification for such violence against people and we formally distance ourselves from it," one protestor said.

The Rostock march was the biggest event of a week of demonstrations against the meeting of the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. Sunday's march began in a peaceful atmosphere. Protesters carried banners reading "Make Capitalism History". Others called for the world's most industrialised nations to fulfil their pledges to increase aid to Africa.

Protesters intend to block roads around Rostock airport from Wednesday to prevent the leaders and their delegations from reaching the summit venue. Organisers said they were expecting up to 100,000 people from anti-poverty and anti-corporate globalisation groups to demonstrate near where the leaders will gather. At a meeting of European and Asian foreign ministers in the northern city of Hamburg police used tear gas and batons to disperse a crowd of demonstrators.

All around the G8 venue tented camps have sprung up as affinity groups organise an alternative summit to highlight poverty and inequality. Dirk Mirow, a 37-year-old German taking part in the demonstration, said he was hoping the summit would achieve a major breakthrough on capping greenhouse gases. "I am here to protest for the climate because I have a two-year-old daughter and I'm wondering what sort of world we are creating for her," he said.

Tthe luxury beachfront hotel on the Baltic coast where the meeting will be held is surrounded by a heavily guarded fence topped with barbed wire. An underwater barrier has been erected to prevent ships approaching the hotel. German authorities have mounted an extensive security operation, with up to 16,000 police on duty.

Authorities can become brutal at G8 summits, most notoriously in the Italian city of Genoa in 2001 when a demonstrator was shot dead by police.

Check the Indymedia Timeline for immediate updates

SOURCES:
Resistance Against the G8
Why do you want to blockade?
G8 Protests Timeline
ABC News
ABC News
de.indymedia.org
Call for Action: June 5th, 2007
Germany: Pics from G8 protests - INFOSHOP

Stolen Wages taskforce a win for WA Aboriginals

Stolen Wages taskforce a win for WA Aboriginals

May 31, 2007 - The WA Government has announced that it will establish a taskforce to investigate wages and Commonwealth benefits stolen from Aboriginal people. In some cases, up to 75 per cent of their income was held in Government managed trust funds but never repaid. Brian Wyatt from the Goldfields Land and Sea Council says the compensation owed to Indigenous workers in the Goldfields alone could be up to $150 million...

The announcement coincided with the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum that changed the Commonwealth Constitution to allow the Commonwealth Parliament to make special laws regarding indigenous people and enable indigenous people to be included in the national census.

The term 'stolen wages' refers to entitlements and other moneys that should have been paid to indigenous workers but were not. Regulations allowed the Government of the day to hold in trust up to 75 per cent of an indigenous person's wages. There is evidence that some of the workers did not receive their full entitlements.

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert welcomed the announcement having pushed hard for the state to act on the findings of a Senate inquiry: "The West Australian economy was built on the back of the unpaid and under-paid labour of our Aboriginal people," Senator Siewert said. "They were systematically excluded from the benefits of the wealth they created."

"The Senate inquiry found ample evidence of monies being withheld, monies diverted in WA to missions and station coffers, and widespread rorting of trust funds by trustees," said Senator Siewert.

But there is concerned by the announced timeframe as many of the people affected are now elderly and another year of delay will see more of them passing away before justice is achieved.

Brian Wyatt from the Goldfields Land and Sea Council says justice must be done for the people who suffered. "Indications are that the annual indigenous payroll for Goldfields pastoral properties in the 1960s was in the order of $9 million, said Mr Wyatt.

"There were curfews in towns, you know. You had to be out of town by six o'clock, you had to live on designated areas outside of towns and, on top of that, you worked for next to nothing, particularly in the pastoral industry. So it was very, very demeaning I would have thought," he said. "At one mission, in return for a ten shilling a week government accommodation subsidy, Aboriginal people were provided bush shelters and tents with no toilet facilities, and were expected to hunt their own food."

Indigenous Affairs Minister Michelle Roberts said the task force would investigate and make recommendations to try and correct some of the injustices of the past. Mrs Roberts said many of the people affected were likely to have died and a broad repayment scheme, potentially encompassing the families of deceased workers.

The NSW Government set up a trust fund scheme in 2005 to repay wages which were lost between 1900 and 1968 to living claimants and their descendants. In Queensland, Aboriginal people lodged a multi-milliondollar claim for lost wages and entitlements in 2002 and the Government set up a $55.5 million fund which capped claims at $4000 a person.

Mrs Roberts said stolen wages remained an issue for indigenous people. “This is not a report we would be setting up unless we were prepared to take some action and prepared to extend some money at the end of the process,” she said.

Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Dennis Eggington said the inquiry was overdue and the Government needed to provide meaningful relief by acting on its findings.

----

Recommendation 4 of the Senate Unfinished business inquiry

The committee recommends that:
(a) the Western Australian Government:
(i) urgently consult with Indigenous people in relation to the stolen wages issue; and
(ii) establish a compensation scheme in relation to withholding, underpayment and non-payment of Indigenous wages and welfare entitlements using the New South Wales scheme as a model, and
(b) the Commonwealth Government conduct preliminary research of its archival material in relation to the stolen wages issues in Western Australia.

---

Sources:
Greens Media
GLSC Media
Inquiry into Stolen Wages - Senate
Sunday Times
The West
ABC
PERTH INDYMEDIA

Howard's IR Laws: "culture of fear" force workers from unions and slash casual pay

April 04, 200 - Unions say casual employees stand to lose pay over the Easter weekend because of the Federal Government's WorkChoices laws. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) says 2,000 young workers a month are being switched to individual contracts which reduce or abolish penalty rates on public holidays.

Meanwhile, WA leads the way in workers abandoning unions, with over 10 per cent bailing in the last 12 months...
ACTU president Sharan Burrow says young workers will be the worst hit over Easter. "There's no way that young people can continue to make ends meet if their take-home pay is slashed by up to $100 a week," she said.

"This is a generation of young people, those who do casual work, who will grow up never knowing that there's a difference between a Monday and a Sunday and now an Easter Sunday, that of course would attract a double entitlement to wages because of the unsocial hours."

However, Federal Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey says young workers are better off under WorkChoices.

Meanwhile, Australian union membership is at record low. Latest figures reveal that 125,000 workers have left the union movement in 12 months. The biggest drop in the 12 months to August last year - 10.5 per cent - came in Western Australia. Nationally, trade union membership now represents only 15.5 per cent of private-sector workers, down from 16.7 per cent in mid-2005. The number of male union members has dropped below one million for the first time, with total membership now 1.8 million.

Ms Burrow said she was not surprised by the figures and believed Work Choices had made people scared to be in unions.

"The figures are not surprising considering that the IR laws are designed to take away people's rights at work and make it harder to bargain collectively," she said. "There's a culture of fear when employers have the power to say 'sign the contract or you don't get the job'."

ACTU secretary Greg Combet said people were opposed to the Government's IR laws and that Labor should articulate an alternative policy. "It's a matter for the Labor Party, of course, what they set out at their national conference, but myself and my union colleagues are hopeful of seeing a bit more detail at the national conference about what Labor's alternative plans would be," Mr Combet said. "It's very difficult for people to make the choice to be a member of the union under Work Choices."

Mr Combet says the results are very disappointing for unions but not surprising. He says one of the aims of the Federal Government's industrial laws is to make it very difficult for people to be a part of the union movement.

"It's very difficult for people to make the choice to be a member of the union under WorkChoices," he said. "We're already aware of people being victimised for choosing to be a union member and putting their hand up to oppose some of things that happen in workplaces. It's also very hard for people to have effective union representation."

A recent Newspoll published in The Australian shows that most voters do not believe Work Choices will be good for them, the economy or job creation.

The poll shows voters overwhelmingly reject the Howard Government’s push to put workers on to AWA individual contracts and want unfair dismissal and collective bargaining rights for workers restored. With the Prime Minister John Howard ruling out any possibility of the Federal Liberal Party making changes to its year old IR laws, the national poll shows:

* 69% believe AWA individual contracts that are being pushed by the IR laws give too much power to employers.
* 71% believe that collective bargaining gives power back to workers and that this is a good thing.
* 59% reject the Government’s argument that unfair dismissal laws cost jobs and believe that all workers, including those in small businesses, should be protected from unfair dismissal.

Research also shows that work conditions are being cut by the AWA individual contracts - 1,000 Australian workers a day are being pushed onto AWAs which the Federal Government's own survey shows that every new AWA is cutting at least one so called ‘protected award condition' and that 51% cut Overtime Loadings; 63% cut Penalty Rates; 46% cut Public Holidays pay; 52% cut Shift Work Loadings; and 40% cut Rest Breaks.

SOURCES:
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)
Union memberships hit hard - News Ltd
WorkChoices biting over Easter: ACTU - ABC
WorkChoices choking union participation: ACTU - ABC
New poll shows voters reject AWAs and want collective bargaining - ACTU
Federal Govt's new IR laws are hurting working families - ACTU

Blundies to be made overseas

Wednesday, 17 January 2007 - Tasmanian bootmaker Blundstone is about to move its manufacturing operations to Asia within months. The Aussie icon company, was founded in the 1870s. Blundstone says it can't compete against low-cost imports. The company says it will shut its doors within months after 137 years of operation and move to Thailand and India to reduce high manufacturing costs.

Up to 300 workers in Tasmania and 60 in New Zealand will lose their jobs.

The closure highlights the need for the Howard government to abandon its push for a free trade agreement (FTA) with China...

"Since 2003, we have not been able to pass the price increases - fuel increases, inflation, and labour - on to consumers," Blundstone manager Steve Gunn told the corporate media. "If we hadn't made this decision, the market would have determined Blundstone boots irrelevant in a relatively short period of time."

Mr Gunn said it was not worth asking governments for further assistance and said Blundstone would not be the last manufacturer in the sector to close onshore operations. "I would make the point that we are not the first Australian manufacturer to make this call there are others that have been identifying the need to do it," he told ABC Radio. "I don't believe that manufacturing in Australia is a sensible option."

The factory closure and the loss of 300 jobs in Hobart is a "major blow for the state and for Australian manufacturing," said Greens Senator for Tasmania, Christine Milne. "Blundstone did everything it could to keep the business operating in the face of falling tariffs and cheap wage competition from overseas. But the company was let down by the inherent contradiction in federal government policy which lowers tariffs and gives industry restructuring assistance knowing full well that such assistance will never be enough to compete with low-wage economies," Senator Milne said.

"The Howard government's headlong rush into FTAs must stop. Prime Minister John Howard must be the only person in Australia who believes that he can negotiate an agreement with China that will benefit Australia rather than the Chinese," said Senator Milne in a media release. "Australia should identify those manufacturing opportunities in the industry sectors of the future, such as energy efficiency and renewable energy, and build competitive advantage in those."

"Blundstone has been forced to leave because it can't compete with low
wages whereas Vestas and Roaring40s have gone offshore because of Prime
Minister Howard's stubborn refusal to move Australia to a low carbon
economy and develop innovation in industry accordingly," said Senator Milne.

"The Howard government has an obligation to look after the 300 workers who will lose their jobs because of its ideological commitment to free trade and zero tariffs. It is not enough to merely provide short-term financial assistance. Retraining must be accompanied by industry innovation and development, particularly in renewable energy in which Tasmania already has competitive advantage."

The textile union is also blaming the Federal Government's trade policies for the imminent closure of Blundstone's factory, and warns more jobs in the sector will go if changes are not made.

Tony Woolgar, national secretary of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union, said the Federal Government's trade policies were ruining Australia's manufacturing industry. "We've got a Government hellbent on doing a free trade agreement with China, we're allowing a flood of imports into Australia from China in the TCF sector, and unless the government is prepared to change it's policy on trade, then I think you'll see this sort of thing continue to happen," Mr Woolgar said on ABC radio.

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said the Government was disappointed, but said Australian companies found it difficult to compete with lower wages in Asian countries. "The textile, clothing and footwear industry in Australia has been under big pressure since the mid-1980s and that pressure has come from right around the world, as other countries have moved and Australia's standard of living has continued to rise and... wage rates rise, making this industry a little uncompetitive compared to that product coming out of Asia."

"We have committed almost $1.5 billion as a government towards supporting the textile, clothing and footwear industry in Australia and the company itself has been a recipient of many millions of dollars worth of assistance," he said.

Meanwhile the CFMEU – which represents almost half a million manual labourers – will shortly unveil its campaign to stop Blundstone’s management from moving offshore. "The majority of Australia’s 500,000 construction workers were proud to wear Blundstones, knowing they were supporting a great Australian company," CFMEU national secretary Dave Noonan said. "All that would be put at risk if Blundstone takes the low cost road to off-shoring production."

The legendary brand produces about a million pairs of boots a year.

All workers are expected to be paid their full entitlements.

Sources:
Senator Milne Media Releases
Tas bootmaker to move operations offshore - ABC
The Australian - Government blamed for Blundstone move
Union ban on Blundstones - Daily Telegraph
Blundstone.com