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  Issue No 13 Official Organ of LaborNet 14 May 1999  

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International

Union Lifts Lid on Rio Tinto Shame File


The global campaign against mining giant Rio Tinto has been stepped up with a new report alleging abuses of human rights, environmental and safety standards.

The report, "Rio Tinto: Behind the Facade" was prepared by the international union body ICEM and the Minerals policy Institute. It was released to coincide with the company's annual general meeting in Britain chronicles of litany of grievances against the firm including:

- increasing executive salaries by 27 per cent in the past year, despite profits falling 43 per cent.

- human rights abuses against West Papuan at the Grasberg copper mine.

- the omission of 25 international standards and conventions from the company's statement of business practise.

- details of Rio Tinto's active role in the drafting of the federal Workplace Relations Act.

- the acquisition of the Gordonstone coal mine and the efforts to restart operations using non-union labour.

-the deaths of ten workers in the Lassing mine disaster in Austria.

The report's authors hope that by consolidating the multinational's global activities into the one document, people will understand that Rio Tinto can be called to account.

"For years Rio Tinto has taken advantage of the isolation and weakness of communities affected by its operations and organisations campaigning against it," MPI executive director Geoff Evans says.

"For too long people have swallowed the line that the problems they were experiencing with the company are unique.

"Thanks to effective international communication we now know that there are many people who are having the trouble with the way this company operates."


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*    View the full Rio Tinto report at the CFMEU homepage

*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 13 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Really Caring
Sam Moait will be sending a message from the 48,000 nurses who she represents when she takes her seat at the Drug Summit
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*  Unions: Kicking the Habit
The architect of a trade union drug and alcohol program has revealed his own battle with drugs motivated him to help other workers kick the habit.
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*  History: Remembering BHP: Memory and Industrial Heritage
The announcement of the intended closure of BHP�s Newcastle steelworks heightened the awareness that industrial heritage is more than derelict sites of production.
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*  Review: Ten Songs to Revolution
We ask Labor Council's resident music critic to name the ten songs that define the nineties.
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*  International: Union Lifts Lid on Rio Tinto Shame File
The global campaign against mining giant Rio Tinto has been stepped up with a new report alleging abuses of human rights, environmental and safety standards.
*

News
»  Unions Warn Carr: Bosses Can�t Veto Second Wave
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»  Labor Council Backs Harm Minimisation
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»  Aquilina Urged to Talk as Students Offered Teaching Jobs
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»  Cutting Through the Budget Crap
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»  LHMU Demands Y2K Protection for Workers
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»  Cops Eye Airport Beat
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»  Spanish Workers Warned on Tax Agents
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»  Unions to March on Journey of Healing on May 26
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»  NSW Young Labor Turns 50!
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Columns
»  Guest Report
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»  Sport
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Piers Watch
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Letters to the editor
»  Why Wran's Right
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»  London Calling
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