Mt Isa enterprise deal
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE — Workers at the MIM Mt Isa mine voted overwhelmingly to accept a new enterprise deal on August 10, ending a nine-month dispute which involved strikes, bans and a major lockout.
The workers will receive lump-sum payments of up to $1400 and a 6% pay rise "within weeks", after a mass meeting of some 1800 voted by more than 80% in favour of the new agreement.
Australian Workers Union Mt Isa organiser Roy Harris said the majority of MIM workers now realised that the free return airfares to Brisbane — withdrawn with other over-award benefits in 1993 — "will have to be addressed in some other form".
He said an equivalent of the airfares "can be achieved by a payment in kind", and the lump sums of $400, $800 or $1400, depending on length of service and family status, would go some way towards this.