BHP's Australia coal mines face week-long strike

Friday, 10 February 2012

Several of BHP Billiton Ltd.'s Australian coking coal mines will be hit by a seven-day strike from next Wednesday as a dispute over a new workplace agreement drags on, a labor union said Thursday.Workers will down tools at the Goonyella Riverside, Broadmeadow, Peak Downs, Saraji, Norwich Park, Gregory Crinum and Blackwater mines that BHP co-owns with Mitsubishi Corp. , the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union said in an emailed statement.
Roughly 3,500 members of the CFMEU and two other unions jointly bargaining with BHP Mitsubishi Alliance staged rolling strikes over several months late last year. They suspended the action in December to continue negotiations.

Stephen Smyth, district president at the CFMEU, said the new round of work stoppages was necessary because BHP had failed to address workers' concerns despite 15 months of talks.
"The workers here feel they have been left with no choice but to ramp up industrial action," Smyth said. "BHP is making enormous profits out of its coking coal operations in central Queensland, but it doesn't want to listen to its workforce."

Marius Kloppers, chief executive of Melbourne-based BHP, Wednesday told analysts during a conference call--following the release of the company's half-year results--that the dispute wasn't about money, but centered on union demands that would impede the company's ability to manage the operations.

"It is extraordinarily important to have that right to manage if you are committing billions, perhaps tens of billions of dollars in expansion," Kloppers said. "So we would have liked this to end six months ago, but we must unfortunately insist that management's right to manage is sacrosanct."
Source: Market Watch

Union says BHP Australian coal workers to strike

Thu Feb 9, 2012

SYDNEY Feb 9 (Reuters) - BHP Billiton's Bowen Basin coal workers will strike for seven days next week in the latest chapter of a months-long battle with the world's biggest miner, the miners' union said on Thursday.

"Workers at the Goonyella Riverside, Broadmeadow, Peak Downs, Saraji, Norwich Park, Gregory Crinum, and Blackwater mines will be involved in the strike from midday next Wednesday," the union said.

The action could support spot metallurgical coal prices, which have tumbled to around $215 per tonne this week, down from the 2011 high of $350 per tonne when prices were driven up by flooding that nearly halted coal production in Queensland state.

About 3,500 unionised workers at the BHP Billiton-Mistubishi Alliance (BMA) mines have been staging rolling work stoppages since they first approved strike action in June 2011. The total workforce at the mines is around 10,000.

Union members have been striking for greater job security and more pay as rising commodity prices boost mining sector profits, but they have so far been unable to reach an agreement with BMA.

BHP Billiton reported a rare fall in earnings on Wednesday, in part due to labour battles and weaker commodity prices, but still brought in $9.94 billion in half-year profits.

"We are extremely disappointed as we have consistently demonstrated our commitment to negotiating constructively with the unions...strike action will not change our position, as has been the case for the past eight months," BHP said in a statement on Thursday.

BHP's chief executive told reporters on Wednesday that the company desired nothing more than to "reach an agreement with the minimum amount of fuss".

BMA-operated 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.

Analysts have estimated that a full week of 12-hour stoppages at the mines would cut production by up to 1 million tonnes.

The BMA strike action follows a week-long strike at the BHP Billiton-operated Port Kembla coal terminal which exports around 10 million tonnes of coal and coke per year and processed about 5 percent of seaborne metallurgical coal, used for steelmaking, last year.

(sourced Reuters)

BHP Billiton Coal Workers in Australia Vote to Resume Strikes

Tue,Feb7, 2012

BHP Billiton Ltd.’s coking coal miners in Australia, the world’s largest exporter, voted to resume striking after rejecting the company’s latest offer on employment and accommodation.Workers voted to reject the offer on Feb. 3 and may strike for as many as seven straight days at seven of BHP’s coal operations in Queensland state, Steve Pierce, district vice president of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, said today by phone. The unions have not yet set a date for the stoppages to commence, he said.

About 3,500 workers at BHP’s mines in Queensland’s Bowen Basin have held rolling strikes since June over pay and conditions, before suspending industrial action in December to resume contract talks.

Labor unions globally are stepping up demands for higher wages and improved conditions as record commodity prices swell profits at mining companies. “The company cannot, and will not, diminish its rights and obligations to manage the business, nor will we accept productivity-destroying arrangements as currently proposed by the unions,” Kelly Quirke, a Melbourne-based spokeswoman for BHP said by phone. “Strike action will not change our position, as has been the case for the past eight months.”

(sourced Bloomberg)

CIL workers to strike on February 13 on wage pact

Monday, 06 Feb 2012

TNN reported that the Rashtriya Colliery Mazdoor Sangh, one of the biggest unions of the Coal India Ltd, has called a daylong strike on February 13 to protest the poor hike in wages of workers.

Over 108,000 workers of the CIL and its nine subsidiary companies are member of the RCMS.

RCMS president and former MLA Mr Israil Ansari alleged that the company and the Union coal ministry had cheated the workers by not keeping their promises.

He said “We feel cheated and have decided to go on a day's token strike on February 13. If the management does not amend the agreement, which is against the interest of the workers, we will call a three day strike in the second phase.”

The date for the three-day strike in yet to be decided

He threatened that if the CIL management and the ministry failed to make amendments at the earliest, the workers might even go for an indefinite strike.

There are around 360,000 workers in the CIL and its subsidiary companies.

(sourced timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

CIL not likely to hike prices after wage increase

Thursday, 19 Jan 2012

Reuters cited Mr Sriprakash Jaiswal coal minister as saying that State-run Coal India Limited is not expected to raise prices after it finalises a wage increase agreement with its workers later this month.

Coal India last week said it will sign a five-year agreement with workers unions to increase wages by 25%, adding about INR 40 billion to its annual wage bill.

(Sourced from Reuters)

ArcelorMittal slashes workforce at Brazil mill

Thursday, 08 September 2011

Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported Wednesday that ArcelorMittal has dismissed 45 workers from its longs mill ArcelorMittal Acos Longos in Juiz de Fora in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, essentially cutting 5 percent of the workforce.

Reduced demand for domestically-produced steel in Brazil driven by high foreign steel imports has been cited as the main reason for the cutback.

The workforce reduction in Brazil follows the temporary shut down the blast furnace at its plant in Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany, due to recently slow demand.

Tags: longs , Germany , Brazil , Europe , South America , ArcelorMittal , production , steelmaking , European Union

Coal India workers cancel strike

August 05, 2011 |Agency Press Trust of India

New Delhi: Workers' union of Coal India today withdrew a proposed three-day strike, called to press early wage revision, after receiving assurance from the management on early settlement of the issue.

Five leading unions at Coal India -- INTUC, BMS, CITU, HMS and AITUC -- had in July threatened to go on a three-day strike from August 8 demanding early revision of wages.

"The strike which was called by the trade unions has been withdrawn. We met representatives of the unions and assured them to look into their demands," Coal India Chairman NC Jha said, after the meeting with the trade union leaders in the national capital during the day.

Among their various demands, the trade union bodies had also asked that there should be no further disinvestment in Coal India, which mines country's 81% production.

"The trade unions had meeting with the senior officials of the Coal Ministry and Coal India. During the meeting, the government assured us that it will look into our demands on policy matters," SQ Zama, General Secretary, Indian National Mineworkers Federation, said.

During the meeting, the trade unions had also requested the government to stop allocation of coal blocks to private firms or captive use and demanded allocation of coal mines through competitive bidding mode, henceforth.

"Among our various demands, we also asked the government to take back unused captive coal blocks. We also asked for recruitment of departmental workers," Zama added. (sourced BS)

Weak life signs detected, 60 hours after seven trapped in flooded coal mine in N. China

Mon April04, 2011 17:44:29| English.news.cn

TANGSHAN, Hebei, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers on Monday detected weak life signs, as they approached a flooded shaft under a coal mine in Tangshan, north China's Hebei Province, where seven workers remained trapped underground for more than 60 hours.

Rescuers said they were only a few meters away from the location where the workers might be trapped by Monday afternoon. However, they had to remain cautious to move further because the digging may cause secondary disasters.

Local authorities said the seven trapped workers were undertaking maintenance work when the flooding occurred at 10 p.m. Friday. Production in the colliery had been halted before the incident to prepare for the mine's reconstruction.

The rescue work is currently led by vice governor of Hebei Zhang Jiehui. Editor: Zhang Xiang
(Xinhuanet)

Colombia coal workers accept Cerrejon pay deal

Sun Feb 6, 2011 6:51pm GMT
* Strike avoided, market had ignored walkout threat
* Cerrejon, workers had been in talks since last year
* Agreement expected to be signed on Tuesday
BOGOTA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Colombian coal workers have accepted a compensation deal with the nation's largest exporter, Cerrejon, and the signing is expected to happen on Tuesday, company and union officials said.
Cerrejon produces on average 85,000 tonnes a day of coal, and any strike would have hit the global coal market at a time when it is vulnerable to supply disruptions in many important exporting countries, such as Australia.
"The majority of workers have accepted the offer by the company and that avoids a strike. We only have to edit the agreement and sign it. We hope to do it on Tuesday," Sintracarbon union President Igor Diaz said on Sunday.
Cerrejon chief negotiator Alvaro Lopez said he expected both sides to spend Monday looking over the wording of the deal and then ink the pact on Tuesday.
Traders have said the potential walkout had already been factored into prices.
Cerrejon and workers have been in talks since Dec. 9.
Cerrejon -- unlike privately owned Drummond and Glencore, Colombia's other top coal producers -- has listed partners, BHP Billiton (BLT.L: Quote), Anglo American (AAL.L: Quote) and Xstrata (XTA.L: Quote), to keep happy as well as its customers.
In June last year, workers at U.S. coal miner Drummond reached a three-year deal while a month later laborers at La Jagua mine of Glencore's Prodeco unit signed a two-year deal after a five-week walkout.(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Jack Kimball, editing by Maureen Bavdek and Gunna Dickson, sourced:Reuters)

Colombia's Cerrejon, coal workers see progress

Saturday Feb5,2011 12:24am GMT
* No deal reached after mediation, but progress made

* Union expected to decide on Saturday on strike

* Cerrejon, workers have been in talks since early Dec
By Monica Garcia BOGOTA,

Feb 4 (Reuters) - Colombian coal workers and the nation's largest exporter, Cerrejon, failed to reach a deal on Friday but made progress in pay talks after the government scrambled to avoid a looming strike, officials said. Cerrejon produces on average 85,000 tonnes a day of high-quality thermal coal, and any prolonged stoppage at the mine would hurt output at a time when global supplies are tight due to issues in almost all major thermal producers.

Sintracarbon union President Igor Diaz said that the syndicate would present the company's proposals to workers on Saturday. "It's the workers who will decide what will happen next," he told reporters. "There were advances in some areas," he said, adding that the company had increased the salary increment to 6.5 percent for the first year from 6.3 percent previously. The union has a midnight Saturday/Sunday deadline to decidewhether to walkout, accept the deal or workers would have tovote again on a strike, according to Colombian law. "We've made great progress ... now it's in the hands of the union," Cerrejon President Leon Teicher told reporters.

Cerrejon and workers have been in talks since Dec. 9. If workers strike, it will be the first walkout in twenty years, according to the company. Colombian Vice President Angelino Garzon held an hours-longmeeting on Friday with Cerrejon executives and union leaders totry to hash out a compensation deal. "I'm optimistic that due to the willingness of the companyand the union, we're very close to a deal," Garzon said. Cerrejon -- unlike privately owned Drummond and Glencore,Colombia's other top coal producers -- has listed partners, BHPBilliton (BLT.L: Quote), Anglo American (AAL.L: Quote) and Xstrata (XTA.L: Quote),to keep happy as well as its customers. Adding to pressure to reach a deal with workers, itspartners have had lower output from mines in Australia due toflooding and would not want to lose any more production in sucha tightly balanced market set to go higher. Global coal markets have been vulnerable to supplydisruptions in many important exporting countries, such asAustralia, and that has boosted prices.(Additional reporting and writing by Jack Kimball; Editingby Gary Hill, source:Reuters)