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February 12
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Morale high on Tahmoor picket line

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It’s hot, there are flies, and we’re all sick of sausages – but morale amongst the coalminers here at Tahmoor is higher than ever.

Picket: Strength in numbersPicket: Strength in numbers

We’ve been locked out since Monday night, but we’re determined to keep fighting until our Xstrata managers sit down with our union representatives and negotiate a fair agreement.

Xstrata is trying to make out that we’re just greedy, wanting ever-bigger pay rises (they’d rather keep their profits to themselves!).

But the guys here are much more worried about protecting our conditions than our pay packets.

Locked out: life on the picket lineLocked out: life on the picket line

We’re lucky at Tahmoor, because we managed to avoid negotiating an Enterprise Agreement under WorkChoices. That means we’ve got conditions that have been scrapped from agreements at other Xstrata mines – conditions like reverse seniority meaning that those who are laid off in tough times get their jobs back when production picks up again; and a contractors’ clause meaning contractors can’t undercut us with lower wages.

WorkChoices is gone and there’s no way we’re giving up those conditions now.

We’ve seen the way Xstrata operates at other Australian coal mines. As soon as it gets rid of the job security clauses in our agreement, it will start scaling back the full-time permanent jobs and up the number of contractors.

Regardless of the money they earn, contractors have no job security and no confidence to stand up for their safety or work conditions. That’s not a good way to work, or a good way to live.

The CFMEU has a proud history at Tahmoor. Historically it’s been a good arrangement all round, delivering fair working conditions and high productivity – this is a committed workforce that’s produced highly profitable coal in difficult circumstances.

Poker anyone?: Our card skills have improvedPoker anyone?: Our card skills have improvedBut Xstrata wants to change the play book and stop engaging with the union. The Enterprise Agreement they’ve asked us to sign, and delivered to our doors, was developed with NO consultation with our union officials. It’s a disrespectful and outright hostile approach.

At the moment we’re awaiting a decision from Fair Work Australia, which we hope will direct Xstrata back to the negotiating table with us. That’s all we ask – we are willing to negotiate in good faith, but Xstrata needs to understand the meaning of ‘give and take’, not just ‘take’.

If any Tahmoor miner ever suspected Xstrata management cared about their interests, that’s all changed since we’ve been locked out this week.

We’ve had great support from other unions and the community. Morale is high, unity is strong, we’ll stay here as long as we need to.

Take that Xstrata!: You wont beat usTake that Xstrata!: You wont beat us
 

16 comments on "Morale high on Tahmoor picket line "

Xstrata Avarice... said on Sat, 20/02/2010 - 19:14:
Keep strong all, the eyes of good and evil are monitoring closely for cracks. Thumbs up from Ulan!
Guess Who said on Tue, 16/02/2010 - 09:18:
Hey Darren (Daryl) Nichols... you looked tired and beaten at the round of meetings trying to sell option #3... Why don't you just save your breath. No point stealing any more oxygen than you already do. Kevin looked like a wet rat, he looks as if he is about to turn on Xstrata... think he has had enough of the Xstrata propaganda sales pitch, better keep an eye on him. Just let the CFMEU know when you have finished clowning around and are serious about devising a "fair" enterprise agreement. We will all be waiting out the front gate until you have finished your circus act. Our morale is higher than ever... bet you wished you could say the same.
Darin Sullivan said on Mon, 15/02/2010 - 10:14:
Thanks for letting us join you on the picket line last Friday Comrades. On behalf of the Fire Brigade Employees' Union (FBEU), stay united, and stand your ground. Darin Sullivan State President FBEU
xstrata-sux said on Sun, 21/02/2010 - 18:06:
Although a secondary boycott is now illegal we appreciate your support and are welcome on our picket line any time. No doubt bonds are being forged between us and we will offer the same support should the need ever arise!  
pcbcloud said on Mon, 15/02/2010 - 19:01:
I can only echo SCABHUNTER's remarks. Thank you lads for coming & standing with us. You should be proud of yourselves, & we are proud to have you their on the picket line (or anywhere else) with us. Many thanks from all the lads at Tahmoor, & the rest of the CFMEU!
SCABHUNTER said on Mon, 15/02/2010 - 18:09:
Thanks darin it was a big lift for us to have you and your boys with us for the day. Companies acting like this only strengthen the union movement. Thank you Xstrata for bringing us closer.
Jonesy said on Mon, 15/02/2010 - 09:35:
Gday NickelB Bloody Hot last week. 40 degrees Celsius. Weekend boys had rain and cooler weather 25'. We are back at work early this week, and are being forced to vote for the companies bullshit agreement Thursday and Friday. We will vote NO. Good Luck with your struggle.
Nicklebender said on Mon, 15/02/2010 - 01:07:
How is the weather guys? Here's a link to the boy on the line at the mill here in Sudbury. http://s426.photobucket.com/albums/pp344/Dougwp/?action=view&current=100... If you look through the smoke you can see an old fellow stocking the fire. A pensioner retired 18 years. He started in 53 as he told me and he's mad as hell to see those SOBs trying to take away what he worked so hard for... Take heart your communities are full of angery old men just like this guy ( who got up at 4 AM to come out and blockade with us ). Your communities are full of small buisness people that suport you because you suport them. The world is watching, the little guy in a mine in SA who wants the standard of living you have. The guy in Chile who needs a good drug plan is wathcing. The fellow in Brazil who wants job security is watching. And they are all pulling for you.... These Managers, scam artists and spin doctors can say and try any dirty trick and spin any story they like but the trueth is YOUR communities know what are fighting for and they are behind you and those of us around the world are watching and behind you. Hold the line brothers and sisters we are all in this together.
Haz. said on Sat, 13/02/2010 - 14:12:
Xstrata could face action over lead levels in Mount Isa By Michael McKenna. Widespread lead poisoning found in children Legal action looms against miner Xstrata Test case being prepared A SERIES of law suits is looming against Swiss mining giant Xstrata after blood tests around its Mount Isa operations revealed widespread lead poisoning among the children of the central Queensland town. The legal action over the alleged metal contamination in the Queensland mining capital comes ahead of the release next month of a Queensland Health report that is understood to show dangerously high levels of lead in more than 10 per cent of the town's children. Ordered in late 2006 after The Australian revealed new evidence of metal contamination of soils and water, the study shows at least 45 children have lead blood levels that could damage intellectual and behavioural development. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. The Queensland Government has already moved to repeal exemptions to environmental standards granted to the Mount Isa hardrock mine and smelters by the Bjelke-Petersen government. A test case involving mother Daphne Hare, on behalf of her six-year-old daughter, Stella, is now being prepared by leading lawyers Slater & Gordon. For Ms Hare, the damages claim - the first of several being prepared over metal contamination in and around Mount Isa - is aimed at stopping an alleged "cover-up" of the cause of ill health and developmental problems suffered by her only child and others who have grown up in the shadow of the mine. Last week, a toxicology report, from one of the most respected laboratories in the US, confirmed the worst. Stella - who suffers learning and behavioural problems and had a melanoma removed from her leg this year - recorded dangerously high levels of lead in her body, as well as high levels of more than 10 other metals. According to the report, her blood lead levels over a three-month period averaged 17micrograms per decilitre (one-tenth of a litre). Studies in Australia and the US have linked blood levels of 10 micrograms per decilitre to intellectual and behaviour difficulties in youngsters. Queensland Health screening has found 45 children testing above 10 micrograms, with nine above 15, two above 20 and one registering 31.5. The legal action by Ms Hare and lawyer Damian Scattini, of Slater & Gordon, is the culmination of a debate over the health impact of the mine and the town's copper and lead smelters that has raged in recent years. Independent studies have indicated widespread heavy metal contamination, continuing environmental standards exemptions, and a failure to test the soil and local water since 1990. Ms Hare said the legal action was needed to reveal the truth about the dangers facing the town's children. "I know I am not going to be popular, but there is so little awareness, so little information," she said. "I have a child that has learning and behavioural problems and I will do anything to protect her and the other kids. "Queensland Health fobs me off about my concerns about what is in the dirt, in the air or the water. Then the (Queensland Health) regional officers tell me not to allow Stella to play in the dirt; why shouldn't she be allowed to play in the dirt if there is nothing wrong?" In September 2006, Queensland Health ordered the blood screening of 400 of Mount Isa's children after a story in The Australian raised concerns about lead poisoning. It is finalising the report ahead of a public forum in Mount Isa next month. The Queensland Government last month announced it was repealing special status granted to some mines - including Mount Isa - by the Bjelke-Petersen government that exempted them from having to operate under the environmental standards that apply to 1200 other mines in the state. Mr Scattini last night said the legal action was intended to ensure Xstrata bore the cost of its"toxic mess and not the families and future generations of Mount Isa". "Xstrata is heavily subsidised by the people of Queensland for the profits of its shareholders in Switzerland," he said. "In return, they force the children of Mount Isa to eat, drink, breathe, bathe and play in the toxic waste that Xstrata creates but won't pay to clean up." ___________________________________________________________ Xstrata doesnt give a flying kahoona about workers, the communities they live in, or the children who live in them. They wont clean up toxic wast even if it kills the children living there because that costs money and they dont want to upset their Swiss shareholders now do they?
pcbcloud said on Sun, 14/02/2010 - 18:34:
Mate! The only chance there is of these bastards taking some kind of care about community or environment, is if they build a mine in Switzerland - which is where we all hope they will f**k off back to soon. They can take my job with them mate - because I will not work for these evil bastards under the conditions they wish to force upon their workers & communities around the world. The closest thing I can percieve to Xstrata, is the good old Nazi's mate. Check 'em out! They're on par! Why would "any" democratic government in the world allow these scumbags to do what they are doing? Even the U.S. has virtually banned them from operating within the United States? May have something to do with that Glencore bastard going to jail for fraud? or whatever the hell it was before being pardoned. Have to assume he paid his "bills" to the Clinton administration in full? Is that a pun? Yeah - bloody hilarious! Basically - you can be a criminal - you just have to have the bankroll to be able to afford it! Fairwork Commision judge who heard our case, must be - what????????????????????? Living in the real world, is not the answer! Well paid? Possibly? Not enough backbone/testosterone to make a landmark decision - most definitely!!!!!!!!!! Well, from me & my wife & 6 kids - thanks a bloody lot mate! Your not a f**king hero, obviously! You've just gone down in infamy! You d**k! [Edited for language webite team]
Nicklebender said on Sat, 13/02/2010 - 10:06:
Now you fellows know how to Picket! Stay strong we are all in this togther. Xstrata just has anounced they are going to take up where Devco left off with some coal opperations here in Canada's east coast. No threat to you but they want that coal!.... Its a bit cooler on the lines at Vale Inco but come spring I think we will look into that hot tube idea you boys have going.
Jonesy said on Fri, 12/02/2010 - 20:53:
Dear PCBcloud. The article is this one. Above. It says everything that we stand for. In common english. regards jimmy
Haz. said on Fri, 12/02/2010 - 18:32:
Hi Guys. [quote] "If any Tahmoor miner ever suspected Xstrata management cared about their interests, that’s all changed since we’ve been locked out this week."[/quote]. Hi all Tahmoor mine workers and Tahmoor Lodge members. I can tell any Tahmoor miner, or any other miner be he a contractor, a lodge member of any Estrata mine or a private individual scab like contractor employed by Xstrata, and i speak from many years of personal experience having dealt with them, and i say this with an honest and open heart, that any local Xstrata mine manager, or any Head Office Management Sector, or any other Xstrata management of any kind, that not one has ever cared about the interests of any of their undermanagers, any employees at all, be they their own mine managers, their secrataries, their own leagal representatives be they barristers, socilicitors or just paper lickers, and especially their own MINE WORKERS. We are dead wood as far as they are concerned and are nothing but a hinderence to their own personal bottom line. Haz.
Guess Who said on Fri, 12/02/2010 - 17:55:
Thank you Xstrata for locking us out. We just keep getting stronger and stronger as a union every time you throw mud at us. Not only that but the whole Illawarra region now knows your name and the way you scum operate. The community support for the CFMEU Tahmoor employees is forever growing each day you losers drag on this EA. Bring on option #3....#4,5,6,7,8,9,10 If you think we are going to vote yes on any of your grossly indecent "modern & flexible" agreements you need to wake up to yourselves. This is AUSTRALIA... we wont be bullied or forced into joining your industrial psychopathic ideologies. You wanted a fight....... but you jumped in the ring with the champ. You lose.
Jonesy said on Fri, 12/02/2010 - 17:24:
Worried that is a great story and you have told it perfectly. This should be used as the press release to all media outlets. Because that is exactly what we are trying to tell the world. Thankyou
matt said on Fri, 12/02/2010 - 16:28:
Fight the good fight lads and know we are all behind you..