Mining and Energy Union Members at the Metropolitan Mine near Helensburgh have been locked out by their employer for almost weeks in retaliation for taking just one hour of industrial action.
Since November the MEU Helensburgh lodge has been engaged in bargaining with US multinational Peabody, the owner of Metropolitan. Despite the workers delivering consistent profits, the company has refused to offer the workers a fair share in terms of pay and conditions.
Particularly contentious is Peabody’s efforts to remove the mine’s longstanding job security clause, which sets the ratio of directly employed workers to labour hire contractors, and prevents Peabody from replacing permanent jobs with labour hire. The Helensburgh Lodge is also seeking pay increases to bring the site in line with Illawarra standards.
In pursuit of these claims, MEU members voted overwhelming to pursue industrial action, notifying Peabody of their intent to take one-hour stop works at the beginning of some shifts, as well as placing partial work bans on the transport of wide loads through the main drift and on training.
The company responded by locking these workers out of their place at work.