BHP's deadly greed

Five employees from a company accused of overseeing 
"plummeting" safety standards are fighting for their lives in 
Western Australian hospitals. A gas explosion at BHP Billiton's 
Port Hedland briquette plant last week left four men suffering 
horrific burns and battling for survival after being airlifted to 
Perth by the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Then a teenage 
apprentice was critically injured at a Pilbara mine operated by 
the same multinational corporation.

BHP's Billiton's Port Hedland iron ore operation has been the 
focus of ongoing accusations of bad safety conditions which two 
weeks ago resulted in the death of AMWU activist, Cory Bentley, 
whose head was crushed in an early-morning accident.

After Mr Bentley's death, management began removing bright red 
posters that urged employees to "aim high, move fast" and spelled 
out massive tonnage targets required by the company.

Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union Secretary, Jock Ferguson, 
said BHP Billiton had put production before safety.

The claim was amplified by ACTU Pilbara organiser, Will Treacy, 
who said safety standards had "plummeted" since the company 
launched a 1999 campaign to de-unionise its Pilbara operations.

BHP Billiton lured nearly 40 percent of the workforce onto non-
union AWAs (individual employment contracts) with massive 
inducements, worth up to $100,000 to some employees.

"The thing with these contracts is that they inhibit people from 
speaking out on safety for fear of being hammered in performance 
reviews", said Mr Tracey. "Anyone who speaks out on safety is 
labelled a trouble maker."

A stunned Jock Ferguson repeated his call for an independent 
safety audit of the whole BHP Billiton operation.

One of the men burned at Port Hedland after hydrogen exploded 
during maintenance work, was said to have suffered severe burns 
to 90 percent of his body.

Three contract workers sustained "bad" burns to their faces and 
bodies in the same incident.

Their injuries sparked the West Australian newspaper to go 
digging and within 24 hours it was bringing readers stories from 
other workers who had been injured in explosions at Port Hedland.

Ken Te Wano told the paper he had been in an "almost identical" 
accident in July, 1999, while Mary Halls, the cousin of one of 
the injured workers, confirmed she, also, had been burned while 
working at the facility.

"I can't believe this has happened twice to the same family, it 
is a really dangerous place", she said.

The teenager hurt in the mine accident was being sustained by a 
life support system.

"BHP makes a massive amount out money out of its Pilbara 
operation but this senseless loss of lives has to stop", said Mr 
Ferguson. "There has to be a change to its culture of production 
at all costs."