By Jim McIlroy
Workers at the giant Mt Isa mine are calling for unity of all unions and mineworkers in any negotiations with MIM Holdings over the future of their three-month-long dispute over wages, conditions and union coverage.
Responding to a deal worked out between representatives of the company, the ACTU, the Australian Workers Union and the Manufacturing Workers Union (the state branch of the metal workers) in Brisbane on May 19, union delegates in Mt Isa were initially sceptical.
The plan, worked out between MIM general manager Phil Wright, ACTU president Martin Ferguson and other union officials, may exclude three unions with substantial numbers of members involved in the dispute from a direct role in future negotiations.
MIM locked out its 2750-strong work force on May 12. The workers had walked off the job on May 8 after enterprise bargaining negotiations stalled over MIM's refusal to grant workers benefits, in particular annual airfares to Brisbane — a traditional benefit which had been removed in 1993 on the understanding it would be restored later.
More than 1200 miners at three MIM-owned coal mines in central Queensland walked out in solidarity on May 12. They later refused to obey Industrial Relations Commission orders directing them back to work.
The MIM-ACTU "peace plan" reportedly recommends a return to work by the Mt Isa workers, lifting of all work bans, dissolving the five-union disputes committee and the formation of a negotiating body.
The draft reportedly recommends the body include only state officials of the AWU and the Manufacturing Workers Union, with representatives of all award employees at Mt Isa.
This excludes a direct role for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the Federated Clerks Union and the Electrical Trades Union — the other three unions with members at Mt Isa.
CFMEU Mt Isa lodge secretary and Combined Unions Disputes Committee co-chair Steve Hardwick said on May 19 that "observer status" for the three excluded unions would be unacceptable.
A meeting of Mt Isa workers on May 19 was reported to have heard complaints that the interests of the rank and file were being ignored in the Brisbane talks.
But Steve Hardwick and Disputes Committee co-chair Roy Harris of the AWU told 150 workers at the AWU's Mt Isa offices that only the work force would decide if the peace proposals were acceptable. Harris told the workers, "We will be at the table, all five unions, or nobody will be at the table".
Behind the Mt Isa conflict is the campaign to exclude the CFMEU, the Clerks and the ETU from the mine.
A decision by the Queensland Industrial Commission last year gave the AWU and the MWU sole coverage rights at Mt Isa. This caused a massive outcry from workers at the site, who demanded the right to determine which union they should belong to.
In a ballot organised by the ACTU, workers voted overwhelmingly to retain membership of the three unions — many members of the AWU sought to leave and join the others!
MIM, facing extensive restructuring of its copper-lead-zinc mining operation at Mt Isa in the face of falling profits, wants to establish a sweetheart deal, primarily with the AWU — unaffectionately known as "Australia's Worst Union".
A further dimension of the dispute is that the AWU is the most powerful ALP factional force behind the Goss government. Government influence will seek to further entrench the AWU stranglehold on a large sector of the Queensland work force, especially in regional and rural areas.
The looming state election is a strong incentive to get the Mt Isa dispute settled as soon as possible.
The question of wages and conditions goes back to 1993, when Mt Isa workers agreed to temporarily forgo certain conditions, in particular an annual family airfare to Brisbane as recompense for the isolation of the town.
This airfare was won decades ago, and is a deeply valued benefit for Mt Isa workers and their families. The airfares were forgone as part of a deal to assist MIM with its financial problems, with the clear understanding they would be returned later.
Now, MIM general manager Phil Wright describes the airfares as a "dinosaur" industrial issue.
A mass meeting of some 2000 workers at Mt Isa on February 22 angrily rejected an enterprise bargaining deal proposed by the AWU and the MWU. The deal involved pay rises of some 10% spread over two years, and an $800 annual remote area allowance, in lieu of the previous airfare provision. One return airfare to Brisbane costs up to $700.