BY BOB AIKEN
SYDNEY, Australia - Since October 1997 miners at the
Gordonstone underground coal mine near Emerald in central
Queensland have been standing up to a union-busting lockout,
first by ARCO and now by new owners Rio Tinto.
Recently miners and family support group members from Gordonstone took their fight to Sydney for the first time. As well as speaking to other workers about the 18-month fight to defend their jobs and their union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), they were also in town to attend an April 7-8 Federal court hearing on their case for reinstatement to their jobs.
Picket lines were first set up at Gordonstone in October 1997 after ARCO sacked all 312 miners there. Rio Tinto is now trying to restart production with nonunion labor, moving scabs through the picket lines with massive police backing in February.
Rio Tinto also registered a new, nonunion labor "agreement" with the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) February 2. Under new antilabor laws, this overrides the old union contract.
The CFMEU's courtroom challenge centers on Rio Tinto's refusal to recognize earlier AIRC decisions that found ARCO's mass sackings to be unlawful, ruled in favor of compensation, and ordered reinstatement on the basis of seniority if the mine resumed production.
The union is also challenging the validity of the nonunion "agreement" imposed by Rio Tinto.
While the contingent of 13 miners and 3 family support group members was away from Gordonstone, their picket line was boosted by 10 CFMEU members from Victoria and three members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) from Brisbane, a reflection of the widespread support the Gordonstone miners are winning within the labor movement.
CFMEU and MUA members from Sydney have also spent time on the picket line there since Rio Tinto moved to restart the mine. A 1,200-strong union march took place in Emerald February 27.
While most of the sacked miners were encouraged by the union to find work elsewhere while the mine was mothballed, a core of around 30 have maintained the picket line, reported Dave Weller, the secretary of the Gordonstone CFMEU Lodge, at a public meeting of 60 at the CFMEU hall in Sydney March 31.
Weller, a fitter at the underground mine, recounted some of the experiences of the long dispute with the mine's owners. "Without the support of wives and other supporters we wouldn't have been able to keep going," he said. "We know we're not alone after coming down here."
Jim Lambley, the Queensland district vice president of the CFMEU mining and energy division, also spoke at the meeting, explaining that they had visited workers at a number of building sites around Sydney. He pointed to the contribution the CFMEU in New South Wales had made in "sending people to Emerald" to participate in the picket line and rally. "It lifted the whole town. That's why we came down," he said.
Ten of the picket line veterans from Gordonstone took the two-day bus trip to Sydney at the beginning of April.
They stopped overnight in Gunnedah, where they were hosted by miners who fought a year-long battle in 1995-96 against Rio Tinto's attempt to impose 12-hour shifts at the Vickery mine. The unionists also stopped by a protest picket line set up by miners sacked out of seniority in October 1998 at the Hunter Valley No. 1 mine.
Diane Vaccaneo was one of three family support group members who flew to Sydney to take part in a protest rally organized by the CFMEU at the Rio Tinto head offices April 8. At the rally, Vaccaneo told this reporter she had met with CFMEU members at a number of construction sites during her visit, as well as with MUA members at Patrick stevedoring company.
Vaccaneo, her husband Stuart, who is president of the Gordonstone Lodge, and another miner exchanged experiences with a small number of wharfies at an MUA-organized early morning barbecue outside the gate at Patrick's Port Botany container wharf April 7.
It was the first anniversary of the massive battle last year to defend the union from a union-busting assault by the company and government.
"We're not even fighting for ourselves now," Evelyn Weller, a family support group member, said at the rally of around 40 people. "We're fighting for our children, against the conditions they're trying to impose on us."
"I won't stop till I see justice," she said.
Solidarity messages can be faxed to the Gordonstone picket at (617) 4982 3505.
Bob Aiken is a member of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union. Linda Harris and Doug Cooper contributed to this article.