Addressing the crowd of CFMEU coal miners, their families and supporters down at Tahmoor on Monday was a proud moment for me.
The courage and determination of our Tahmoor miners, and the support they are getting from their families and community, made me proud to be a trade union leader. 
United: There was strong community support for the Tahmoor rally on Monday
I’m pleased to report Fair Work Australia yesterday approved our application for protected industrial action by members at the Xstrata-owned Bulga mine in the Hunter Valley.
We’ll be holding the ballot Monday and Tuesday, then holding lodge meetings on Wednesday and Thursday to decide what action to take.
It looks like it.
Management have notified us they will start training a team of guys from a Wollongong contracting company, to load coal on to trains here at Tahmoor.
They set off yesterday to Ulan mine in Mudgee for training.
As part of our campaign of protected industrial action to protect our job security, we have had a ban on loading trains for the past two weeks.
At Ulan mine, where 38 miners lost their permanent jobs back in August, we’ve seen significant growth in the use of contractors.
The local Mudgee contracting company Panther Mining has gone from supplying three to 26 workers at Ulan.
Some of the workers are the same guys who lost their permanent jobs in August.
While they’re earning a decent casual rate, these mineworkers are now operating as individual sub-contractors, without the protection of a union agreement and all the leave and associated conditions.
Three months ago, I posted the first blog on this site about the fight we had on our hands with Xstrata at the Ulan mine.
The workers at Xstrata’s United Colliery followed and walked off the job in September. And now at Tahmoor workers are stepping up industrial action to protect their job security.
Reading and hearing all of your comments make me proud to take a stand against Xstrata. Coalminers around Australia know that Xstrata is one hell of hard nut to crack.
We had the start of our Ulan unfair dismissal hearings last week.
Seven mineworkers gave evidence about their sackings.
They all did a great job during the hearing. It’s never easy remembering the exact details of events three months ago.
For some, it was the first time they had ever been to court. They should all be proud of the fact that they’re standing up for something they believe in. The Union is right behind them.
The Chief Industrial Magistrate has fined Xstrata for breaking its job security commitments as contained in an agreement at a Hunter Valley Coal Preparation Plant.
Xstrata retrenched two workers in breach of the agreement it negotiated with the CFMEU at their Liddell Plant.
The CFMEU believed that Xstrata were aware that its retrenchment of the employees was in breach of the agreement it had with the CFMEU and its employees. They did not care and retrenched the employees anyway.
Here at Tahmoor we are stepping our industrial action to protect our job security.
Starting last Friday we began two-hour stoppages every shift, since yesterday we’ve increased that to four-hour stoppages.
After telling management we would reduce capacity at the coal prep plant, but not by how much, they haven’t run the plant for two days.
It’s starting to look like the mine will run out of coal.
Here at Tahmoor Colliery on the NSW South Coast, miners are facing a direct and hostile attack on our job security.
Xstrata is demanding our hard-won job security protections be dumped, to bring the mine in line with its corporate ‘philosophy’.
The problem is, we’ve seen Xstrata’s ‘philosophy’ play out around the country at mines like Ulan and Oaky Creek, where permanent employees have been dumped and replaced by underpaid and insecure contractors.
We are concerned about Xstrata’s impact on our work rights, our mining communities and our environment.
By sharing information, we aim to pressure Xstrata into acting fairly and ethically.
Xstratafacts is an initiative of the CFMEU Mining and Energy Division, the union for Australian miners.
This site is not run by Xstrata plc and does not reflect the views of the company. If you are looking for the Xstrata company web site go to www.xstrata.com.
