Rio Tinto AGM reports

The RIO TINTO Campaign

Protests at Annual General Meetings

Trade unions from Australia and other nations joined environment, development and other community campaign groups in protesting at the Annual General Meeting of Rio Tinto in London on 13 May and Melbourne on 27 May.

The Australian AGM

In Melbourne on 27 May around 200 people gathered outside the Annual General Meeting of Rio Tinto Ltd. at the Victorian Arts Centre. More than 70 entered the meeting. For photos and reports read on . .

The following update is from the ICEM.

ICEM UPDATE

No. 51/1998

27 May 1998

The following is from the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM):

RIO TINTO: STAKEHOLDERS PROTEST AT AUSTRALIAN AGM

Trade unions, environment groups and indigenous people's organisations today demonstrated peacefully in Melbourne, Australia, outside the Annual General Meeting of Rio Tinto.

The multinational, which is the world's biggest private mining company, is facing a broad-based campaign against its environmental damage and its violations of human rights. In particular, its attacks on trade union rights in many parts of the world have made it a priority target for networking by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

Around 200 protesters in Melbourne today held placards saying "Union Rights Are Human Rights" and peacefully lined the route taken by shareholders attending the meeting. A large truck displayed posters saying "North, South, East, West - Rio Tinto Fails The Test".

All those attending the meeting were also given a copy of the major report on the company released by the ICEM - Rio Tinto - Tainted Titan - 1997 Stakeholders Report. Interestingly, a number of shareholders indicated they had already read the report via the Internet, on the ICEM's website at http://www.icem.org

A large number of stakeholder campaigners - around 70 - entered the meeting proper, using small shareholdings or proxy forms. The total size of the meeting was between 400 and 500 people.

The meeting was conducted exclusively by John Uhrig, the chair of the Australian company. He allowed no other directors (all of whom were present) to answer questions. The chairman was questioned intensively by stakeholders over issues such as:

- relations with the Indonesian armed forces and human rights abuses around the Grasberg copper mine

- relations with Aboriginal people in Australia - particularly the distress and community division caused by the company's negotiations around the Century Zinc proposal

- the Hunter Valley coal mine dispute and the refusal of the company to recognise the recent vote (93%) against the company's proposal for a non-union enterprise agreement

- Rio Tinto's persistent refusal to consider a return to collective bargaining at its Hamersley Iron operations despite a recent survey result showing that 80% of workers polled wanted to return to a collective bargaining process (and away from the individual staff contracts).

- the refusal of the company to link performance bonuses to such issues as environmental and human rights performance

- the refusal of the company to justify why its new bonus scheme rewarded directors for only average performance by the company.

John Uhrig repeatedly fumbled and failed to answer questions. He frequently relied on pre-prepared replies to questions which did not actually answer the questioner. He did not appear to be a chair either in command of the meeting or in possession of the relevant facts about the company.

His conduct was often arrogant and patronising to questioners. John Ondawame, representative of the Amungme people from near the Grasberg mine in Indonesia, was especially poorly treated in this manner.

Uhrig specifically singled out the "Tainted Titan" report and asked shareholders to note the company's response. He also tried to make an issue of the disclaimer attached to the stakeholders' report, but this point was refuted by Damien Roland of the ICEM who stated that the disclaimer was a standard one and similar to Rio Tinto's own disclaimer on its web site.

The meeting concluded in some acrimony although the conduct of the overall meeting showed a very reasonable attempt by stakeholders to put their case. The chair concluded the meeting even though many questions remained unanswered. The final question allowed by the chair was from John Maitland. He is ICEM Vice-President and National Secretary of the ICEM-affiliated mining and allied workers' union CFMEU. His union is currently facing one of Rio Tinto's most sustained attempts to deunionise mines and end collective bargaining.

In his question to the AGM, Maitland proposed to Rio Tinto that it sit down with various stakeholder groups to discuss the allegations against the company. This proposal was rejected with a flat "no" by the chairman, who then went on to say they would only discuss matters with individual groups in isolation.

Members of the CFMEU mineworkers' Family Support Group

This poster has been a regular feature outside building sites in Sydney and Melbourne over recent months, and made a new appearance at the Melbourne AGM.

CFMEU members (and some friendly police?) line the path to the Rinto Tinto AGM.

CFMEU National Secretary-elect John Maitland addresses protesters outside the AGM venue

The London AGM

The following report is from the ICEM which helped co-ordinate the London protests.

ICEM UPDATE

No. 45/1998

14 May 1998

The following is from the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM):

NOWHERE TO HIDE FOR RIO TINTO

"We challenge Rio Tinto to enter constructive dialogue with its critics. We issued that challenge publicly inside Rio Tinto's Annual General Meeting today and we will continue to do so. Given the arrogance of Rio Tinto's responses today, and the breadth of the opposition to the company's present behaviour, we do not feel that discussions behind closed doors would resolve the issues at this stage. The dialogue will have to be in the open."

That was the reaction from angry trade union and community leaders following acrimonious exchanges inside Rio Tinto's Annual General Meeting in London today.

Rio Tinto is the world's biggest private mining company. It has come in for massive criticism from a coalition of trade unions, environmentalists, human rights organisations, indigenous peoples representatives and other campaigners worldwide. They cite the companys breaches of UN resolutions, its environmental pollution and its abuse of human rights - notably trade union rights and the rights of indigenous peoples.

In campaigning for major reform of Rio Tinto's business ethics and practices, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the whole of the world trade union movement are allying themselves with organisations such as Oxfam, Greenpeace and the World Development Movement.

Earlier, the ICEM and others had distributed a detailed, balanced but critical "stakeholders' report" to shareholders attending the meeting (see ICEM UPDATE 44/1998).

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: CHAIRMAN'S ARROGANCE

ICEM Australian Vice-President John Maitland was one of the international union leaders who acquired Rio Tinto shares in order to take part in AGM today. Maitland is National Secretary of the ICEM-affiliated Australian mining and allied workers' union CFMEU, which is involved in bitter disputes over Rio Tinto's attempts to deunionise its Australian mines and to end collective bargaining.

In fact, Rio Tinto Chairman Robert Wilson invited Maitland to speak towards the beginning of the AGM.

"I made what I and others considered to be a moderate and responsible statement," Maitland commented afterwards. "I emphasised that our stakeholders' report is part of our attempt to engage in proper, constructive negotiations with the company. I also pointed out that Rio Tinto's new statement of business principles, The Way We Work, will be relevant only if it is actually put into practice.

"Frankly," Maitland said, "I was amazed by Wilson's reponse. Instead of answering my points, he launched into a series of arrogant character assassinations against officers of the ICEM and the CFMEU. He also accused us of engaging in misinformation. But in fact, his own comments were full of half-truths and distortions. For example, he said that Rio Tinto has no direct involvement and no personnel in the troubled Norwegian smelter Norzink. That is incorrect. He also told the meeting that a miners' strike in Indonesia ended within three days. That is correct - but he omitted to mention that the strike ended because it was broken up at gunpoint by the army.

"Then Wilson told the meeting that The Way We Work had been 'widely discussed' before being launched. But it was never discussed with unions at Rio Tinto or with environmental and civic campaigners. In fact, Rio Tinto did send a copy for comment to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, whose General Secretary Bill Jordan sent back a closely argued eight-page critique. Not one of Jordan's comments was ever mentioned by Rio Tinto, and not a single change was made to the document on the basis of Jordan's letter."

From the AGM chair today, Wilson also launched into an attack on an ICEM conference in Johannesburg this February, where unions organising in Rio Tinto worldwide agreed to set up a network. In particular, Wilson strongly criticised former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke for taking part in the Johannesburg conference.

"Wilson's performance today showed him to be a very insecure man, obviously under a lot of pressure," Maitland commented. "It seems he thought his only way out of a corner was to come out snarling."

ICEM British Vice-President Fred Higgs agrees. "Although Rio Tinto has very little in the way of operations inside the UK, it is a British-based company, " said Higgs, who is National Officer at ICEM British affiliate the TGWU. "Having been at the meeting and seen the disgusting way the chair distorted the views not just of the trade unionists, but of anyone who dared to criticise the company from the floor, I have to say I'm a little ashamed to be British today. This reinforces my view that international solidarity is vital in dealing with companies of this kind."

Today's AGM was "a classic case of the corporate PR machine versus real people," commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe, who also spoke during the AGM. "Wilson, obviously, was arrogant and ill-mannered. But some of the shareholders weren't much better. It's a long way from British middle-class drawing rooms to the killing fields of Kalimantan."

Thorpe saw one positive point in the meeting: "Rio Tinto implicitly agreed that industrial relations are a matter of global corporate policy. Previously, they had always hidden behind local management's alleged right to manage. If Rio Tinto are now treating industrial relations globally, they should take the next logical step and start talking to the ICEM."

John Maitland was impressed by another item on the AGM agenda. Rio Tinto's Board, already high up the world chart of corporate "fat cats", decided to pay themselves an extra 33 per cent in bonuses if the company gets up to the midway point in the international industrial league tables. The bonus rise would go up to 100 per cent if the company makes it into the top four.

"On behalf of Rio Tinto's organised workforce in Australia, I would be happy to accept the same bet for the people who actually produce Rio Tinto's wealth," Maitland said.

FACTUAL GENERAL MEETING: TALES OF TERROR

Naturally enough, Rio Tinto's critics got a rather better hearing at their own counter-event this afternoon - the Factual General Meeting. It was held in London's Central Methodist Hall, which is very near the AGM venue.

The Central Methodist Hall also, back in 1945, hosted the founding session of the United Nations. Three years later, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose fiftieth anniversary is being celebrated this year. In "The Way We Work", Rio Tinto pays considerable lip-service to the Universal Declaration.

In addition to trade unionists and environmentalists, speakers at the Factual General Meeting included representatives of indigenous peoples in Indonesia, Colombia and Nevada, USA. They told tales of exploitation and in some cases of outright terror as Rio Tinto connived with local authorities to take over their ancestral lands.

A speaker from Colombia's Guajira people said Rio Tinto had "despoiled" their land. In particular, he pointed the finger at activities in the area of El Cerrejon. "The name of El Cerrejon is a familiar one to us," commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe. "It has been the scene of many a miners' strike - in some cases put down by military force. This is a good example of the community of interest between Rio Tinto's workers and the other people who suffer from Rio Tinto's operations."

Also addressing the Factual General Meeting was British parliamentarian Michael Clapham. He and other legislators tabled a highly critical motion about Rio Tinto in the House of Commons last month. To applause, Clapham announced that he is preparing another Commons motion. This one, to which some fifty Members of Parliament have already signed up, will praise the responsible action of the ICEM and its allies in publishing the stakeholders' report and will call for continuing pressure on Rio Tinto to mend its ways.

Despite Rio Tinto's provocations today, the unions and others are determined to maintain a calm, responsible approach.

"The idea is not to break the company but to turn it into a good corporate citizen, conscious of its responsibilities to its stakeholders," emphasised the ICEM's Vic Thorpe. "We will continue to seek dialogue, but at the same time Rio Tinto must realise that its attitude has further cemented the broad alliance of those who insist on real change in the company's practices. More than ever, the company will be under scrutiny everywhere.

"Truly," Thorpe said, "Rio Tinto has No Place To Hide."

________________

An ICEM CYBERCAMPAIGN ON RIO TINTO is on the Web now at:

http://www.icem.org/campaigns/riotinto/index.html

The campaign pages include the full text of the stakeholders' report, "Rio Tinto - Tainted Titan."

CFMEU National Secretary-elect John Maitland with copies of the "Tainted Titan" stakeholders report outside the London AGM