USA Rio Tinto miners bring fight for jobs and families to London

Miners locked out of Rio Tinto’s site in Boron, California for refusing to give in to demands by the company that could threaten their ability to work and support their families are highlighting their plight as shareholders attend the global mining giant’s AGM at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London today.

Almost 600 workers, all members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 branch, were refused entry to the Borax mine and processing plant owned by Anglo-Australian corporation Rio Tinto when they showed up for work on 31st January. This followed their refusal to accept the imposition of a new contract that threatened to convert good jobs into temporary, part-time or outsourced positions.

Rio Tinto has used a firm with a notorious reputation for union busting, J.R. Gettier of Delaware, to bus replacement workers across picket lines to mine and process borates. Borates are used in numerous products, including detergents, glass, building materials and as an ingredient in chemicals.

In negotiations Rio Tinto sought to agree to a new contract which would give the company the right to award jobs to outside contractors; require miners in dangerous occupations to work overtime; and require the workers’ themselves to pay for the company’s legal penalties, fines and damages if the company violates state and federal labor laws.

Dave Irish, one of the locked out miners protesting at the AGM, said:

“After working the mine for generations, families are being jeopardized by a newly-proposed system of insecure working patterns and conditions, and dog eat dog struggles for jobs I believe. Rio Tinto wants to starve us into submission, forcing us to accept a contract that we fear will destroy decent, family-supporting jobs. When we tried to use our legitimate negotiation rights, we were locked out of our own jobs and replaced by union busters. We’ve been forced to survive on unemployment insurance and handouts ever since. We are determined to fight for our jobs, our families and our community.

“Having us back in our jobs is in the best interests of shareholders, too. As experienced workers, we are much better able to guarantee the quality and quantity of production to meet customer demand. We hope the shareholders will listen to us and demand that the corporation ends the lock out and negotiates a fair contract with us so that we can get back to work.”

Ray Familathe, International Vice-President of the ILWU, said: “We have come to London to highlight the courage of ordinary workers and their families in standing up to a powerful global business. The Boron miners simply want to work hard and to be treated fairly and with respect. This seems the latest example of appalling behaviour by Rio Tinto around the world in terms of the way it treats its workers, communities and the environment. This is not just a problem for the small community in Boron, California which relies on the mine for its survival but a global threat when a corporate giant such as Rio Tinto gets away with riding roughshod over its employees.”

The action against Rio Tinto is a joint initiative of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which is based in the UK; the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union; and the International Metalworkers’ Federation. It is supported by a range of other organisations, including the London Mining Network.

ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said: “The lockout is the lowest reaction of the employer to a workforce that strives for dialogue. We support the fight of the miners and applaud their strength and courage and support the ILWU’s call for an end to the lockout and proper negotiation to reach agreement on staff contracts.”

Four Rio Tinto executives were found guilty of bribery and commercial espionage by a Chinese court at the end of March. This follows a case against the company by residents of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea accusing it of complicity in human rights abuses by the operation of its copper-gold mine. Rio Tinto has also been alleged to have colluded with the Apartheid government in South Africa and some of the world’s most despotic regimes, including Suharto’s in Indonesia.

Workers from South Africa, Australia, Turkey, New Zealand, Canada, Europe and Papua New Guinea have expressed solidarity with the locked out Boron miners in the USA.

Supporters of the Boron families will demonstrate outside Rio Tinto’s AGM from 10-11am on Thursday, 15 April. The AGM is being held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Broad Sanctuary, London SW1.

There will be coordinated pickets on 16 April at the British Consulates in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and Vancouver in support of the Boron families.

NOTE: The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is an international trade union federation of transport workers' unions. 751 unions representing over 4,600,000 transport workers in 154 countries are members of the ITF. It is one of several Global Federation Unions allied with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). For more information on ITF visit: www.itfglobal.org