Unions savage ‘ultra-aggressive’ Pilbara miners

Unions have launched an extraordinary attack on BHP, Rio Tinto and the Minerals Council of Australia.

Unions claim employers risk radicalising Pilbara workers. Picture: Gerrit Nienaber.

Mining unions have launched an extraordinary attack on BHP, Rio Tinto and the Minerals Council of Australia, warning their ultra-aggressive, irresponsible approach to employment conditions in the Pilbara risked radicalising workers.

Employers have accused the unions of a productivity-sapping power grab after they capitalised on Labor’s workplace laws to force BHP to start negotiating the first union collective agreement in the Pilbara for almost a decade.

Unions are pushing for hundreds of workers at BHP’s large Area C and South Flank iron ore mines in the Pilbara to get guaranteed ­annual 5 per cent wage rises, higher wages for long-serving tradies and improved rosters.

In a resolution to be passed at the Australian Workers Union national conference in Perth on Monday, the AWU and Mining and Energy Union said “it is politically and socially unsustainable for multinational mining corporations to generate tens of billions in profit each year from Australian resources, while showing contempt and hostility toward the rights and demands of Australian workers”.

Unions intend to pursue across-the-board annual pay rises rather than tie increases to performance, more worker-friendly rosters and pay increases for more experienced employees who have seen new employees hired on higher base salaries due to labour shortages. Picture: Rohan Kelly

“If the mining corporations do not deal constructively and cooperatively with the mainstream responsible unions like the AWU and MEU they risk radicalising workers in the Pilbara and other Australians.”

Unions intend to pursue across-the-board annual pay rises rather than tie increases to performance, more worker-friendly rosters and pay increases for more experienced employees who have seen new employees hired on higher base salaries due to labour shortages.

Unions also want to negotiate with Rio Tinto but are unable to use the five-year trigger as there has not been a collective agreement covering their Pilbara mine workers for decades.

AWU national secretary Paul Farrow said on Sunday “the hysteria and sooking we’ve seen from BHP and Rio Tinto are testament to how much bullshit they’ve been allowed to get away with in recent years”.

“They’re having a tough time coming to terms with the fact we now have an Australian government that wants to help real Australians, instead of just being the obedient servant of mining corporate interests.

“I think the resources lobby has actually started to believe their own overblown tales of woe. They’re getting high on their own supply and they’ve lost sight of the big picture.”

AWU national secretary Paul Farrow. Picture: Supplied

MCA chief executive Tania Constable. Picture: Adam Taylor

MCA chief executive Tania Constable said on Sunday the government’s “extreme industrial relations laws have handed unions the power to intervene in every workplace, regardless of the wishes of workers”.

“Claims that companies are avoiding negotiations with unions are simply untrue – these laws mandate union intrusion, giving companies and their employees no choice in the matter,” she said.

“For a generation, workers in the Pilbara have voted with their feet and agreed to direct engagement with their employers, which has delivered some of the highest-paying and most productive workplaces in Australia.

“Under these laws, that choice has been stripped away. This isn’t just unfair to workers; it risks importing the kind of bullying, conflict and disruption we have seen from the CFMEU, directly into the Pilbara. That will have a devastating impact on the Western Australian economy.”

Mr Farrow said the unions had set out a very reasonable and achievable set of claims that deserved to be negotiated in good faith. “As ore prices reached all-time highs in recent years, the pay rises offered by BHP and Rio to most Pilbara workers didn’t even keep pace with inflation.

“Pilbara mine workers used to enjoy coverage under enterprise agreements and that’s the situation we need to get back to. The current situation is completely out of balance.”