An eight-hour strike on 16 July in Port Hedland, Western Australia, has broken a decades-long drought in the Pilbara iron ore industry. About 100 workers at BHP’s port downed tools, including members of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, and the Western Mineworkers’ Alliance.
It was the first strike at BHP since January 2000, and the first in the region’s iron ore industry since 2008. It represents a significant milestone towards rebuilding union power in what used to be a stronghold of workers’ militancy.
The strikers are staring down unrelenting pressure from the company and its friends in the capitalist press. In the lead-up, the pages of the West Australian warned of “chaos” and millions of dollars supposedly to be lost from the state budget. Afterwards, it gloated about how apparently little the strike had really mattered.
True, there was still iron ore shipped out during the strike. But it was still a major event. And despite the West’s spin that the turnout was “dismal”, ETU state Secretary Adam Woodage confirmed that every electrician walked off the site.
Most importantly, the striking workers have taken an important step in what could continue to be a significant campaign of industrial action. Twenty-four-hour strikes are on the table as negotiations at the Fair Work Commission have stalled. And the scope of actions is set to expand, with more workers having voted for protected industrial action.
The day after the eight-hour Port Hedland strike, a vote of high-voltage workers at BHP returned 97.5 percent endorsement for work stoppages of up to 24 hours. These workers maintain the power network supplying BHP’s mines, worker accommodation and the town of Newman. This is upping the ante after months of targeted work bans during contract negotiations that lasted more than a year.
The key demand is for workers to be employed under a real-rates agreement, rather than on individual contracts. These contracts mean workers are often paid different rates for the same work, and conditions are easier for management to change than if a workforce-wide agreement were in place. BHP wants a “minimum rates” agreement that would essentially keep the status quo in place.
The scummy circumstances set up by the bosses have been enabled by the union wasteland that is the Pilbara iron ore industry. It doesn’t have to be this way. Pilbara mine workers were once some of the most militant in the country. Small steps are being taken to rebuild, with union membership on the rise and now, finally, a real campaign of industrial action.
Much remains to be seen in how everything plays out. For now, the leaders of the unions involved are following through with strike action, and they’ve held the line in a long period of negotiations. However things unfold, the first patch of rain has broken a drought in one of the most important sectors of the Australian economy.
Western Australian Liberal leader Basil Zempilas said in the West Australian that 16 July was “the darkest day in industrial relations in WA since the bad old days of the 80s and 90s”. Here’s hoping for many more storm clouds to darken future days for Zempilas and the BHP bosses.
