Rio Tinto workers sign petition for collective bargaining
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The news: Over 400 workers at Rio Tinto’s Paraburdoo iron ore mine in the Pilbara have signed a petition to support collective bargaining.
The numbers: If the application is successful, it will be the first majority support determination at a major Pilbara mine in over 20 years. Rio Tinto’s WA operations employ around 16,000 workers.
The context: The petition launched by Australia’s Western Mine Workers Alliance (WMWA), formed by the Australian Workers’ Union and the Mining and Energy Union, is necessary to make a formal application to the Fair Work Commission for collective bargaining.
In a Facebook post the WMWA said it will triple check every petition before writing to Rio Tinto and submitting the formal application, and that it expects “Rio will do whatever they can to oppose and slow our application.”
The bid could force Rio Tinto to the negotiating table, as workers push for an annual pay increase, a relief in the current high-living-costs environment among other demands, Mining and Energy Union (MEU) said last month.
The MEU said that the petition was showing early signs of success with Rio Tinto management. Just one day after the petition was launched, the company came out with a new compensation policy for flight delays, a key claim of Rio’s Paraburdoo workers.
What they said: “To all our Para members – thank you! Whilst there is still more to do, we are a big step closer to workers having real say in their pay and conditions at Rio," the WMWA said.
A spokesperson for Rio Tinto told The Australian that its existing approach had helped to “drive productivity and wages growth.”
“This model has delivered for our people, our business and the Australian economy, through the creation of jobs, strong and sustained wage growth, and the payment of royalties,” the Rio Tinto spokesperson said.
The sources: Western Mine Workers Alliance, Rio Tinto
