
Issue No 16		04 June 1999

News

Rio Tinto Buries the Truth

By Paddy Gorman

Miners have called on Rio Tinto to reveal where the statue to the world's most productive underground coal miners has been secretly buried, after it disappeared from Gordonstone.

The two-metre high miners statue was erected by Gordonstone management in 1997 as a tribute to the workforce for breaking a succession of world coal production records at the underground mine in Central Queensland.

The statue acknowledged the Gordonstone miners as "the world's best coal miners" but became an acute embarrassment less than six-months later when the company illegally sacked the entire CFMEU workforce of 312.

CFMEU Mining and Energy Division General President Tony Maher says the burial of the Gordonstone miners statue as an act of vandalism and called on Rio Tinto to restore it to its former position at the mine.

He's warned : "They may have buried the statue, but they can't bury the truth -- and they won't bury the Union."

The Gordonstone mine remained closed because the Industrial Commission ruled that if it reopened the illegally sacked mineworkers would have preference of employment.

Rio Tinto took over Gordonstone in January this year and has attempted to reopen the mine using non-union labour which has provoked clashes on the Picket Line with more than 250 arrests. Now into its 20th month, the Gordonstone Picket Line is the longest ever in the 200-year turbulent history of the Australian coal industry.

Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators braved heavy rain in Perth last week morning to protest against Rio Tinto's abuse of human rights throughout its global operations as shareholders filed into the company's Annual General Meeting.

Inside the AGM, 90% of the questions raised by shareholders were critical of the world's largest mining company's financial performance and policies in regard to its links with human rights abuses; its failure to honour international labour conventions; its continued environmental destruction; and its deteriorating record on health and safety.

Despite the concerns which dominated the meeting, Rio Tinto chairman Robert Wilson refused a request to make a transcript of the AGM available.

The request was made to allow a large number of shareholders and stakeholders throughout the world (who could not attend) to be able to know what the directors reported and to hear the shareholders' concerns at the AGM.

Tony Maher, attended the AGM and condemned Rio Tinto's refusal to make the proceedings of the AGM publicly available.

"Rio Tinto claims its has a policy of transparency so what is it afraid of? It is no big deal these days to post the transcript on the Internet or indeed to make copies available to its shareholders and other interested parties."

"What is Rio Tinto trying to hide? Why won't it come clean?"

Tony Maher warned that the CFMEU, and the 20-million strong international union to which it is affiliated (the ICEM), will continue to work with human rights, indigenous and environmental organisations to campaign for Rio Tinto to accept UN international standards at all its operations.

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  Issue 16 contents

Interview: Opening Australia
Lindsay Tanner talks about new ideas, new policy and new politics in the Information Age.

Unions: An Educated Fightback
A visiting US trade unionist reveals how training better union delegates is the key to reversing the membership slide.

Legal: A Fair Case for Free-Rider Laws
The proposal to enable unions to charge non-members a service fee for negotiating enterprise agreements is consistent with the principle of freedom of association.

History: New Ideas in Labour History
See the latest from the May issue of Labour History, A Journal of Labour and Social History.

International: Tiananmen Square Ten Years On
We remember the massacre and the role that working people continue to play in fighting injustice.

Review: Organising Our Future - What Use the US??
A new paper looks at what Australian unions can learn from the experiences of their American colleagues.

» State Wage Highlights Case for User-Pays

» Labor Hire Cowboys - the NFF Link

» Murder Call: Charge Bosses Who Kill

» Braddy Bunch to Lift Contractor Veil

» Rural Redundacies - Redeployment Confusion Reigns

» Woolies Shopfitters Win Back Jobs From Body Hire

» Political Payback: NSW Targetted in Costello Cuts

» Rio Tinto Buries the Truth

» Child Care Campaign out of the Blocks

» East Timor Mercy Ship heads for Dili

» Fabian Society Reforms

» Industrial Who�s Who Head for Geneva