BHP mineworkers deaths

Inquiry into BHP mineworkers deaths links spread of AWAs to safety decline For some time now our Union has been warning that the spread of AWAs in the Australian workforce will result in increased fatalities and greater risks to employees health and safety as individual contracts generate a culture of fear that compromises workplace safety.Our warning has been proven correct with the recent release of the 550-page findings of the Ritter Inquiry into the deaths of three mineworkers in separate incidents at BHP Billiton’s Pilbara iron ore operations in WA in May last year. The Inquiry found that there is a direct relationship between BHP Billiton’s pursuit of its anti-union industrial agenda and the serious deterioration in safety standards and practices at its operations. BHP Billiton’s individual contracts are being increasingly written in the blood of its workers.The Ritter Inquiry findings were tabled in the WA Parliament on 26 November following months of investigations and hearings into health and safety systems and practices at BHP Billiton’s Pilbara operations. The Inquiry found that the overwhelming majority of submissions had concerns – some of them very serious – about the poor state of OHS systems and practices at BHP operations. Among a raft of criticisms, the Inquiry indicated that the introduction of individual contracts at BHP Billiton’s operations since November 1999 “is a factor which has impacted and continues to impact on the successful implementation of safety systems”.Our Union’s submission to the Inquiry argued that BHP was deliberately marginalising award and union members and ignoring safety issues raised by these groups. It argued that BHP’s drive for individual contracts was blinding it to safety issues on site. Ritter’s Report confirmed the problems associated with this industrial approach.Ritter also reinforced the positive role of unions in health and safety as an “agile and a powerful backstop to guard the safe working conditions of workers”.Professor Neil Gunningham, in his separate report, noted that “strikingly absent” from BHP Billiton’s own submission to the Inquiry is any serious examination of the role of unions. He further noted that BHP failed to respond to the issues raised about its industrial relations approach. While the Ritter Inquiry was limited to investigating BHP Billiton’s Pilbara operations, the situation is at least as bad at other AWA operations. Our Union has had numerous reports from mineworkers who work on AWAs that they are afraid to report unsafe conditions and practices for fear of management reprisals. We’ve been told of mineworkers being so intimidated that they work in what they know are dangerous conditions. We also know of mineworkers on AWAs working with injuries that not only endanger themselves but their work mates as well.The Ritter Report shows that management cannot be trusted with workers health and safety. It also shows the direct relationship between the spread of individual contracts and the deterioration of a safe working environment – a lesson that should sound alarm bells throughout the Australian workforce as the Howard Government intensifies its pursuit of AWAs at the expense of collective agreements.Mining companies challenge prosecution lawsAt the time of writing, two of the biggest coal producers in Australia are attempting to overturn criminal provisions in occupational health and safety laws.Xstrata and Centennial Coal announced that they will challenge NSW health and safety laws under which they have been successfully prosecuted, resulting in criminal convictions in the case of the loss of four miners lives at Xstrata’s Gretley Colliery in 1996 and at Centennial Coal’s Awaba Colliery, where a miner, Barry Edwards, was killed in 1998.If Xstrata and Centennial Coal are successful in their applications it would invalidate prosecutions for criminal negligence. These companies are attempting to exonerate employees who kill people at work. They are seeking to exempt themselves from laws that apply to everyone else in the community. Xstrata and Centennial Coal are being supported by the other employers through the Minerals Council. In doing so, mining companies are telling their workers that they do not consider employees health and safety are worth the protection of the law. They consider workers lives of no value.On the other hand, our Union believes that workers are entitled to all the protection they can get. The hazardous nature of mining is underlined by the fact that at present there are inquiries into mine health and safety underway in four States in Australia – NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria. Our Union has one thing to say to Xstrata, Centennial Coal and all other mining companies operating in Australia – We will not compromise on health and safety. Our members cannot be expected to work in an unsafe industry in which mineworkers are stripped of the full protection of the law. Articles Tony Maher videos on John Howard and climate change March 2007The union has made use of the video-sharing website YouTube to present two short videos by Tony Maher, General President. The first recounts the long history of attacks on mineworkers by Prime Minister John Howard. The second is on the continuing role for coal in a world combating climate change. WorkChoices & the future of unions 20 November 2006Speech by Tony Maher, General President, to the IQPC Industrial Relations Summit in Sydney."No doubt some will say that the next election will be a referendum on whether or not unions have a future. " What is the future of work safety? 20 October 2006Tony Maher speaks to the IR Society of Victoria about the disaster at the Gretley Colliery nearly 10 years ago and considers the future of work safety. John Maitland's retirement 17 August 2006With John Maitland’s retirement we pay tribute to the last of the original architects of the CFMEU. Work Choices? What do I really think about it? Tony Maher, General President Address to the NSW IR Society, 5 April 2006:"I’d like to thank John Howard for Work choices. It has reminded people in the labour movement why we were formed, what we stand for and why we hate these Tory bastards so much." Book launch: Lockout 12 April 2006"Nothing reveals the huge imbalance in power between capital and labour as sharply as a lockout."Launch of the book “Lockout” by Jim Comerford. 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Howard’s grab for coal Long Service Leave is highway robbery Tony Maher, August 2005For coal mineworkers in Queensland, NSW, WA and Tasmania, Long Service Leave entitlements are covered by our federal Coal Mining Industry Award. It has been so since coal miners broke through as the first blue collar workers in 1949 to win this entitlement. Union Gears Up For Long Term Campaign Tony Maher, June 2005The union is preparing for a campaign lasting at least 6 years to fight for workers rights and a system of fairness throughout the community. Mining companies should not be allowed to get away with murder in NSW Tony Maher, April 2005While booming coal prices and record productivity have sparked billion dollar profits for the companies that dominate Australia’s mining industry, NSW coal mineworkers are still entrenched in a bitter fight for greater safety conditions and standards.