Some 60 Joy Mining Machinery workers out on strike at the company's Moss Vale facility in New South Wales have said they will continue strike action until October 9.
The news was reported in Workers Online, a union internet publication, which said the decision to extend the strike follows the breakdown of resolution talks between the unions involved (the AMWU, AWU, CEPU), the ACTU and Joy representatives.
Worker's Online reported that talks were making headway "until they were stymied by the intervention of Joy's multi-national American owners Harnischfeger Industries Inc."
Locked out workers believe the company may be recruiting strikebreakers from Victoria and Tasmania. Joy had no comment.
Meanwhile, in South Africa, where Harnischfeger/Joy has significant interests, the annual conference of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa recently passed a resolution of solidarity with the Moss Vale workers.
Workers Online said the irony was that attempts by Joy management to convince workers that Joy was an independent Australian outfit had been exposed as a lie, "and been a steep learning curve for many on the picket line about the realities of life in the deregulated world of turbo-capitalism".
