Paul Howes declares war on Rio Tinto

Ewin Hannan, Industrial editor From: The Australian

February 16, 2011 12:00AM
PROMINENT union leader Paul Howes has reopened a bitter feud with mining giant Rio Tinto, launching a tirade against the company's management and declaring a major push to increase union membership across the resources sector.
Mr Howes, the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, claimed "monkeys could do a better job" of managing Rio, accusing the company's chief executive, Tom Albanese, of "sucking out the blood, sweat and tears of blue-collar workers".

"I have got a message for Rio Tinto," he told delegates attending the union's national conference at the Gold Coast. "You don't own this government; you don't own this country anymore. Your workforce has the right to be represented. You cannot hide behind the law.
"You cannot hide behind your slimy, grubby mates in the Coalition because we're coming after you. We are going to take Rio Tinto on, and we are going to make sure that they pay a liveable wage to the workers who make the wealth that these shiny arses sitting in the boardroom in London enjoy."
Delegates yesterday endorsed plans to try to unionise every section of the aluminium and glass industries, with Mr Howes identifying Rio operations in Launceston and Gladstone as targets.
He also nominated BHP Billiton's Worsley Alumina refinery and its Olympic Dam project.
Mr Howes's attack on Rio follows last year's anti-mining tax campaign waged by Rio, BHP and Xstrata against Wayne Swan, a factional ally of Mr Howes, and former prime minister Kevin Rudd.
Mr Howes and the AWU were strong backers of Mr Rudd and Mr Swan's 40 per cent super-profits tax, which cost Mr Rudd his prime ministership and was overhauled by Julia Gillard.
The Treasurer earlier gave a speech to the conference paying homage to the AWU, the nation's oldest union. He left before Mr Howes delivered his broadside.
Mr Howes's comments, which company sources said took them by surprise, evoked the hard-fought industrial conflicts of the 1990s, when Rio and the mining unions fought for control over workplaces.
Rio was the first major mining company to place its workforce on individual contracts and refuse to deal with unions. The company believes this resulted in 15 years of industrial harmony at its Pilbara sites. Rio's animosity towards the unions was fuelled by one of the most infamous disputes in Australian industrial history, in which workers at the Robe River iron ore site went on strike in the mid-1980s because some flavours of ice-cream were not available in the canteen.
Mr Howes later denied he was engaging in class rhetoric. "I don't like Tom Albanese," he said. "I don't think I've ever hidden my lack of respect for Rio Tinto. They are a company who, frankly, monkeys could do a better job of running," Mr Howes said.
"They managed to completely stuff the acquisition of Alcan, destroyed their credibility with the ridiculous Chinalco deal; they have had turnaround on their board which would rival the Melbourne Storm.
"You have had them crying poor when it came to the RSPT, but yet a couple of weeks later post a $14 billion profit.
"I am happy for Rio Tinto to make $14bn. I don't believe in class war but I do believe that Rio Tinto has been waging a class war for a long time."
A Rio spokesman said the company "recognises every employee's right to choose to join a union or not join a union".
"We do not monitor the level of union membership in our businesses," he said.
He added that employment arrangements across the business included a mixture of collective employment agreements and individual agreements.

The Australian Mines and Metals Association accused Mr Howes of engaging in "tired old rhetoric" and predicted the union tactics would be unsuccessful.
"For 20 years, Howes and Bill Shorten and others have stood on the stump and said they are going to re-unionise the hard-rock mining industry and they have been a spectacular failure," the association's chief executive, Steve Knott, said.
He said unions had failed to lift membership because employees were highly paid and had high safety standards in their workplace: "Employers have worked hard to ensure employees are safe at work and well remunerated."
Mr Howes said the AWU was the nation's fastest-growing union, having recruited an extra 30,000 members over the past three years. (Additional reporting: Matt Chambers, sourced:The Australian)
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