CPA - The Guardian

As The Guardian goes to press 1,500 fly-in fly-out mine workers have defied the new “motelling” system being used by mining giant Woodside at the Gap Reach village and are taking 48 hour unprotected strike action. The new accommodation system – part of Woodside’s Pluto project – forces workers to pack up all their belongings at the end of each rostered work cycle.

The following work cycle workers must check into a new donga and there is also a possibility no accommodation will be available. They are no longer guaranteed permanent accommodation.

The workers – members of the Mining Division of the CFMEU – have been warned this is the way of the future by the Australian Mines and Metals Association. Workers are so angry with this issue that they are willing to defy oppressive federal laws that will see them facing fines of up to $22,000 dollars.

To have certainty of accommodation is little to ask for a workforce that must periodically leave their own homes and families to work for the company but it became obvious that nothing would move forward without industrial action on the ground.

“It was unanimous, 1,500 workers have walked off for two days,” said the union’s WA assistant secretary Joe McDonald. “The workers have had a gutful. They are very angry. They sacrifice enough by coming out here without taking their privacy away.”

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