By Jennifer Thompson
The July 23 confrontation between striking unionists, who are picketing CRA-owned Novacoal's Vickery mine, and the mine's management was deliberately provoked according to CFMEU members. Workers have been on strike for more than 11 months over management's attempt to force through 12-hour shifts and remove preference clauses from the award.
The confrontation took place when mine management helped contractors breach the picket line. CFMEU lodge secretary Derek Lucas told Green Left Weekly that the confrontation was deliberately set up by CRA to test the union's response to the bringing in of scab labour to restart the mine. The CFMEU's response, to call a 48-hour nationwide coal strike which would be extended to five days in other CRA operations, should "give [CRA] something to think about", said Lucas.
Industrial relations minister Peter Reith accused the CFMEU of "picking a fight with CRA". CRA's Barry Hartshorn said that the union had "clearly been planning this national strike for months" and that "they decided today was the day". These accusations, however, are discredited by the actual events at the mine.
According to the editor of the miners' union journal, Paddy Gorman, contractors were brought up to the picket line three or four weeks ago, where they were refused entrance by miners. A consultation process to allow contractors into the mine to maintain safety equipment was subsequently agreed between the union and mine management. According to Gorman, this type of consultation is normal.
However, on July 23 contractors and the mine manager again arrived at the picket line without prior consultation. When picketers refused them entry, the mine manager called police, who arrived "within minutes" in two paddy wagons. The mine is some distance from Gunnedah. Lucas confirmed that the police had been pressured by the mine management to arrest eight picketers, himself included.
The picketers were taken to the police station, where they were fingerprinted and photographed before being unconditionally released. They have been charged with obstruction and will appear in court on August 9. Unfortunately, said Lucas, the police action resulted in the contractors entering the mine. They left again 15 minutes later — evidence, he said, that there was no work for them to do.
Despite the arrests, Lucas said that spirits on the picket line have been "bumped up". According to Gorman, CRA had almost finished recruiting scab labour to replace the strikers and was waiting for Howard's new industrial relations laws to break the picket and reopen the mine.
The mining employers' body, the NSW Minerals Council, which represents companies affected by the strike, requested an urgent hearing in the federal Industrial Relations Commission on July 24. The result, said Lucas, was a recommendation that CFMEU lodges return to work. This fell short of employers' wishes that the IRC order miners to end their strike.
The IRC brought forward to July 25 a conference between senior CRA coal manager David Klinger and the CFMEU, which resulted in the union ending its strike in non-CRA mines. The union announced late on July 27 that an agreement to end the Vickery strike would be put to the membership this week. n