“NARCISSIST, industrial psychopaths”.
This is how miners at Tahmoor Colliery have described the executive of mining giant Xstrata Coal.
More than 200 workers have been locked out of Xstrata’s Tahmoor mine for one week following failed attempts to negotiate a new enterprise agreement with the company.
The workers staged a six hour strike on Sunday and a 24-hour strike on Monday over the 16-month dispute and had planned to return to work last night but only run the mine at half capacity for the next three days.
Xstrata claim to have instigated the lock-out period because the union’s continued strike action was “not in the interest of employees or the viability of operation”.
They also claim to have offered the miners a 25 per cent increase in their base salary over the next four years something local miners have hotly refuted.
Lodge president Chris Cummings, who lives at Sutton Forest, said the miner’s fight was not about money.
“Our fight is about safety conditions and job security,” he said.
“They are trying to reduce the number of workmen and crews and take away our ability to have input into the company policy.
“The true monetary offer was less than three per cent.
“The 25 per cent increase is a blatant lie.”
Production at the mine has ceased while more than 200 workers are locked out this week with no pay.
CFMEU executive Lee Webb from Moss Vale has been in negotiations with the company for 16 months.
He said the miners were only trying to retain the same contract they had worked under for the past 30 years.
“Xstrata made $200 million US in the first year they owned this mine,” he said.
“We haven’t asked for a pay increase.
“We just want to retain our current work conditions and employment security.”
Father of six from Bargo Peter Calvert has been working at the mine for 20 years and said he was “flabbergasted” by Xstrata’s actions.
“We’ve been trying to negotiate for 16 months now and in the end they have refused to negotiate any further,” he said.
“There’s been no offer other than stripping all our rights we have had for years.
“At the Ulan mine last year they sacked blokes and then re-hired some the next day and got contractors in to replace the rest of them.
“We want something in the agreement to stop this happening here but they just keep telling us to trust them.
“How can we trust them after seeing what they have done in their other mines around Australia?”
Xstrata Coal general manager Dan Clifford said the lock out was a “fair and measured response” to the union’s continued campaign of strikes and workplace stoppages.
“The company is pursuing changes in the proposed Enterprise Agreement which would align Tahmoor with agreements widely accepted throughout the coal industry and Illawarra region,” he said.
Xstrata published a production report for the 12 months ended December 31, 2009, last week, revealing a seven per cent drop in coking coal production, which the report partly attributed to the Tahmoor stoppages.
Buxton miner Bob Timbs said job security was the miner’s main concern.
“We have not asked for one extra cent or even talked about money,” he said.
“This is about job security and retaining our agreement to ensure a safe workplace.
“There has been seven owners of this mine over the past 25 years who have all had the same enterprise agreement and all made a profit.
“We are not stopping them from earning money, we just want an agreement which doesn’t harm the job security and safety of employees.”
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