The strike at the Hunter Valley mine in New South Wales will halt coal production until 6.30am Monday next week unless a deal is made, otherwise the striking workers will hold a meeting to decide the next course of action.
The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union said around 110 workers would be made redundant when the mine closed in March 2010, but that Xstrata planned to resume mining coal in the same lease in 2012.
But Xstrata has only approved a prefeasibility study to consider options for future potential mining in the lease, meaning there is no set plan for mining to resume in 2012.
CFMEU Mining and Energy Union general secretary Andrew Vickers told ILN United workers were being thrown out of work as a consequence of the operation winding down and closing, but that a substantially enhanced operation at United would start 18 months or so after the closure.
Xstrata spokesperson James Rickards told ILN there was no guarantee of a mine being established again in the lease, let alone a commencement date.
“The debate or the discussions being held in regards to potentially keeping people on, or guaranteeing them employment at other operations, or to returning to work towards 2012, is just not feasible for us at this time,” he said.
Rickards views the union’s assertion of a 2012 start date as a “little misleading”, especially to Xstrata’s employees.
He said the company’s priority was to sit and have discussions with the unions and to put in place an enterprise agreement which was acceptable to all parties.
With new federal industrial relations laws in effect, the CFMEU plans to distribute a new bargaining manual to 500 union delegates that contains clauses covering all aspects of enterprise agreements.
The job security clause, which is partly behind the strike at United, is aimed to include a requirement that contract workers receive wages and conditions at least equivalent to permanent employees.
The clause will also seek to have Xstrata commit to maintaining the existing numbers of employees covered by the enterprise agreement.
Additionally, it aims to ensure the retention of skilled staff in the event retrenchments become necessary.
Rickards said he was hesitant to get in a debate on the job security clause at this time.
He said the enterprise agreement at United needed to be considered separately from what the broader legislative implications were, or to what was being suggested by the unions.
“This shouldn’t be about political posturing. This should be about getting the best arrangement in place for our employees and the union’s members,” he said.
Commenting on views about Xstrata’s use of contractors, Rickards said around 100 of the redundancies recently made at the Ulan operation were contractors, with many of the permanent employees taking on other roles in the company.
On the recent cutbacks at Tahmoor, made because the operation was not profitable, Rickards said many of the workers affected were permanent but were not being replaced by contractors.
“We manage everyone on our site effectively whether they are permanent or contractors, but certainly these suggestions that we are removing permanent roles and putting in contractors across our operations is unnecessary and inaccurate.”
Other outstanding claims by United strikers cover the rates of pay, with the CFMEU wanting pay on par with mines in the area, along with issues concerning redundancy payments and bonuses.
Bargaining for the new enterprise agreement began in early July.
In August, Xstrata made 280 workers redundant from its Ulan and Tahmoor operations in NSW.
The move followed the announcement that the diversified miner would reopen its Oaky Creek No. 1 longwall mine in Queensland for short-term production to the end of the year, with Xstrata aiming to fill some positions through contract labour.
Oaky Creek No. 1 shed 230 jobs early this year after production was suspended in mid-December due to weak coking coal demand.
