Mines Out as Rio Tinto Torps Talks

Date: 19 May 2000

Mineworkers at Rio Tinto's Mt Thorley and Howick mines in the Hunter Valley will commence industrial action against the company over its scuttling of negotiations on a new enterprise agreement and refusal to discuss looming retrenchments with the Union.

Around 330 Union mineworkers will walk off the job from this Sunday (21/5) with the Mount Thorley operation out for 7-days and Howick out for 5-days.

With Rio Tinto moving to merge Howick with Hunter Valley No. 1, management is using the threat of retrenchments to stand over the mineworkers there. This has led to enormous frustration throughout the Howick workforce and Rio Tinto's callous refusal to address the retrenchment issue in talks with the Union, has sparked next week's industrial action there.

At the same time, Rio Tinto has refused to continue enterprise bargaining negotiations at Mount Thorley.

The company continues its erosion of conditions at the mine with more contractors and staff being brought in to do work at the expense of the permanent mining workforce.

Both strikes are a declaration by the mineworkers to Rio Tinto that their patience is exhausted and the time has come to take a strong stand.

Meanwhile, Hundreds of mineworkers fighting unfair dismissals against Rio Tinto will be joined by protestors from NSW, Queensland and WA in a rally outside the company's Annual General Meeting to be held in Brisbane next Wednesday.

For further information

Contact:	Paddy Gorman
Union:	Labor Council of NSW
Phone:	0418 116426
WWW:	http://workers.labor.net.au/

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