Xstrata, miners’ union reach deal over disputed share scheme

Warring parties strike a deal just in time for the seven-day deadline set by the Department of Mineral Resources

Thu, 3 Nov. 2011

Diversified miner Xstrata and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have reached an agreement over Xstrata’s disputed employee share-ownership scheme, the Department of Mineral Resources said on Wednesday.

Over the past seven days, the department has been facilitating discussions to resolve the two parties’ dispute over Xstrata’s share scheme, which the NUM rejected on the grounds that it was rigged in favour of managers.

Xstrata held firm to its decision to allocate these shares using three different employee bands, which prompted members of the NUM to go on strike on October 16.

With no end in sight, the department summoned both parties to its offices last week and gave them seven days to hammer out their differences in meetings facilitated by advocate Sandile Nogxina, the department’s former director-general and special adviser to Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu .

The union suspended the strike to facilitate these negotiations.

The parties struck a deal resolving the dispute, which will see Xstrata allocating shares equally over all staff levels and the department recognising the share scheme as compliant with the requirements of the Mining Charter, giving Xstrata the credits it needs to meet its 26% black economic empowerment ownership obligations across both its coal and alloys divisions.

The agreement will also see the NUM calling off its strike with immediate effect.

"We applaud both NUM and Xstrata on the co-operative spirit that they demonstrated during these negotiations in the national interest," said Mr Nogxina.

Commenting on the deal, NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said Xstrata could have avoided the strike by "simply doing what they have done now, which is acceding to our demand".

"We had initially conceived this (share-ownership plan) as an incentive scheme, but during the discussions, we recognised the opportunity it provided to fulfil the spirit of the Mining Charter, as it provides a shareholding to Xstrata’s workers, 84% of whom are historically disadvantaged South Africans," said Songezo Zibi, corporate affairs manager at Xstrata. "This means Xstrata South Africa is fully compliant with the 26% ownership requirement of the charter."

(sourced Businessday)

NUM concludes 2 year wage deal with Exxarro Coal

Tuesday, 01 Nov 2011

The National Union of Mineworkers concluded a two year wage deal with Exxarro Coal on Monday.

Mr Lesiba Seshoka spokesperson of NUM said “The agreement entails a 10.5% wage increment for grade eight, 10% for grade seven, 9% for grade five and six, as well as 8% for grades three and four.”

At the centre of the wage disputes was the demand that four of Exxarro Coal's operations that currently do not belong to the Chamber of Mines should join it.

Seshoka said that an agreement was reached for a task team to be set up within three months to help ensure that those operations joined the Chamber of Mines by 2013.

(sourced from IOL.co.za

BHP Australia coal miners to resume work stoppages Friday-union

Mon Oct 31, 2011

Oct 31 (Reuters) - Union workers at four BHP Billiton's coal mines in Australia will resume work stoppages on Friday as part of a long-running industrial dispute with the miner, a workers' union said Monday.

The stoppages will occur at the Gregory, Peak Downs, Goonyella Riverside, and Blackwater coking coal mines as part of a campaign over job security and more pay.

The mines have a combined output capacity of more than 58 million tonnes per year of mostly metallurgical coal, representing about a fifth of annual global trade.

(sourced Reuters)

S.Africa miners to begin Xstrata strike Sunday -union

Sun Oct 16, 2011

* Workers to strike from 1600 GMT Sunday
* Dispute is over employee share programme

JOHANNESBURG Oct 16 (Reuters) - South African miners will go on strike at Xstrata Plc later on Sunday over an employee share ownership programme, a union spokesman said.

"It begins at 1800 (1600 GMT) this evening," Lesiba Seshoka, a spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers, said in a text message to Reuters.

The strike will affect all of the diversified miner's South African operations, Seshoka said. The Anglo-Swiss mining firm has both coal and alloy operations in South Africa.

More workers are likely to walk off the job at the start of Monday's morning shift.

No one was immediately available for comment at Xstrata.

The union wants employees to be compensated equally under the share ownership programme, regardless of rank, while the company's plan compensates employees based on their level.

Companies with operations in South Africa set up employee share programmes in a bid to increase worker ownership, and particularly black ownership.

South Africa's black economic empowerment drive is aimed at rectifying the ownership and income disparities of white apartheid rule.

(sourced Reuters)

ArcelorMittal confirms closures at Liege site

Fri Oct 14, 2011

BRUSSELS Oct 14 (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal the world's largest steelmaker on Friday confirmed that it will permanently close its liquid phase steel production at its site in Liege, Belgium.

Union leaders said late on Wednesday that the group's local bosses had announced that the two blast furnaces, one idled since 2008, the other since August, and a foundry would be closed down.

ArcelorMittal said it faced a structural over-capacity in Northern Europe, given a difficult European market.

"The liquid phase in Liege is still not competitive enough under foreseeable market conditions," Joao Felix da Silva, CEO of ArcelorMittal Liege said in a statement on Friday.

Arcelor said the decision would not impact its capacity or market share in Europe.

(sourced Reuters)

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)
Tags:Paul Howes, declares war on Rio Tinto, union leader, anti-mining tax, super-profit tax, AWU, workforce, union membership, employment agreement