Qld: Corporate Culture: Glencore Mining demands AWA's in Collinsville

Glencore Xstrata’s is pushing for lesser conditions at the historic Collinsville coalmine.

The Swiss-based multinational is gunning for WorkChoices-style individual arrangements or a lesser collective agreement for the 400 mineworkers at Collinsville.

The company claims publicly that it has no such plans and just wants an agreement that is “flexible and without restrictions”. Its actions however reveal management is anything but laidback in trying to get workers to take less.

Collinsville mineworkers and the union representing them – the Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union – have vowed to stand up to the multinational, and the town’s mining community are rallying behind them.

So how did it come to this?
Glencore already owned the Collinsville mine. But amid the backdrop of cost-cutting across the industry, the company recently announced it was taking over from contractor Thiess as mine operator.

In union meetings, Collinsville mineworkers made it clear they rejected a return to WorkChoices and the conditions fought for and won would not be given up.

So while it sought individual agreements the company then attempted to reclassify the 100-year mine as a new project, and bring in a ‘greenfield’ agreement with lesser conditions.

But Glencore failed to convince the Fair Work Commission that this was a genuine greenfield, so it settled for plan B: shutting the mine indefinitely and locking out workers.

The union sees it as a clear-cut issue: if one company takes over from another as operator any existing agreement and workplace conditions are transferred along with the rest of the business, as per the law.