Rio Tinto photo proof

The RIO TINTO Campaign site

Proof that Rio Tinto does not respect the right of workers to bargain collectively

Rio Tinto claims in its 1997 Annual report that it "respects the right of employees worldwide to choose for themselves whether or not they wish to be represented collectively"

The CFMEU presents here the photographic proof that this is not true.

On 25 June 1997, as part of the ongoing effort by the company to frustrate collective bargaining in its Australian operations, there was an award ceremony. At the Hunter Valley No. 1 mine, where the overwhelmining majority of the workers were on strike over the refusal of the company to conclude a collective agreement, the company mined coal using staff (white collar) labour and a small number of workers ( 7) who had signed individual employment contracts. In the award ceremony on 25 June, trophies were handed out for the first production of non-union coal at the mine. The pictures that follow were broadcast on Australian television.

The message is clear. Rio Tinto doesn't want its workers represented by trade unions. It rewards those who give up their right to bargain via a trade union (at least in the first instance until unions are removed from the workplace).

This is not an isolated incident. The mine manager who organised the award ceremony, Alan Davies (on the right in the first photo), is still managing the mine. Further, the company has been found by independent bodies in Australia to have actively sought to de-unionise operations, to have discriminated against workers who choose to be represented collectively, and to treat unfairly those who have not given up their collectively bargained rights. For more information see Backgrounder No.5 and the briefing paper prepared by the CFMEU in September 1997.