About 780 people working at Solid Energy coal mines are taking industrial action as negotiations continue between 180 HWE employees, the union and the company.

The Rotowaro workers began industrial action early last week following a breakdown in talks. HWE operates the mine for Solid Energy.

Solid chief executive Barry Bragg said the company believed support for the HWE workers was the main reason for the industrial action on other sites, but acknowledged that other issues also might have prompted the action.

“We’ve been in talks with the union for some time now, attempting to agree a new MECA. It’s disappointing that we’ve got to this point. Solid Energy and HWE Mining are asking the union to lift the action so that we can resume talks.”

About 100 miners at Solid’s Huntly East underground mine in the Waikato took industrial action on October 28 and indicated they would return to work on October 30, but as of November 3 had not done so.

At 6am on November 3, 500 workers at Solid Energy’s Stockton open cast mine joined the industrial action.

About 120 miners at Solid’s Spring Creek underground mine near Greymouth took industrial action for 24 hours on Friday, returning to work on Saturday morning.