The Guardian 31 August, 2005
BHP mines cheap labour
Operators of the world’s largest uranium mine are importing Filipino trades people and blocking unions from their heavily-guarded site. The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) has announced a campaign to win collective bargaining rights for more than 1000 people at the Olympic Dam site, in the South Australian wilderness north of Woomera.
It followed last month’s death of a 30-year-old worker in an underground explosion. That fatality at the BHP Billiton operation added to concerns over the impact of secret, individual contracts on workplace safety.
Seventeen deaths were recorded at BHP sites last year and a Western Australian government inquiry into three Pilbara fatalities was critical of the role played by the Howard government’s AWAs (Australian Workplace Agreements — individual, non-union employment contracts).
National President, Julius Roe, said the AMWU wants to contact employees at Olympic Dam, 560 kilometres north of Adelaide, especially newly-recruited foreign workers.
"We have little idea of what these people earn or their conditions because unions are aggressively kept out of Olympic Dam", Mr Roe said.
"What we do know is the Filipinos are brought here on four-year visas under which they are tied to their employers. Without oversight, it is a recipe for exploitation."
He said Olympic Dam was run "like an army camp", surrounded by wire and patrolled by guards, and management had made it clear unions were unwelcome.
"Then they complain that they can’t get skilled workers. One of the reasons for that is it is an especially unattractive place to work when people don’t have the protections of a collective agreement", Mr Roe pointed out.
"Everyone would benefit from a collective agreement that properly addressed safety and skills training."
AMWU South Australian representative, John Gresty, confirmed another foray into Roxby Downs was being planned.
Uranium is a touchy issue for the AMWU whose predecessor organisations were at the forefront of 1970s-’80s opposition to exploitation of a resource that is a cornerstone of the nuclear industry.
The union accepts the reality of Australia’s three mines policy but is strongly opposed to Howard government moves for the wholesale mining and export of uranium.
"Given that the three mines are established, we have a responsibility to represent those workers", said Mr Roe.