The following is from the International Federation of Chemical, Energy,
Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM):
AUSTRALIAN WORKERS WELCOME RIO TINTO'S PEACE CALL.
UNPRECEDENTED SHAREHOLDER VOTE ON UNION-BACKED RESOLUTIONS.
UNION-COMPANY GLOBAL AGREEMENT NEXT?
Mining giant Rio Tinto may be about to change its hardline labour relations
in Australia.
The country's Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU)
welcomed a further assurance today by Rio Tinto chief executive Leigh
Clifford that the company will respect its employees' right to bargain
collectively.
At this morning's Rio Tinto Annual General Meeting in Brisbane, Clifford
repeated the company's commitment to industrial "peace" while the chairman,
Robert Wilson, spoke of "reconciliation" with Rio Tinto's union employees.
VOTE SENSATION
And a vote by Rio Tinto shareholders caused a sensation today.
Two union-backed resolutions opposed by the Board garnered 20.3 percent and
17.3 percent of the investors' votes. This result is unprecedented in the
history of multinational corporations and will undoubtedly boost the new
technique of social campaigning via shareholder proxies.
One of the resolutions concerns corporate governance. The other urges the
company to comply with the basic trade union rights standards of the UN's
International Labour Organisation (ILO). In line with Rio Tinto's
dual-listing structure, the result combines the outcome of the shareholder
vote at its London AGM on 10 May with today's Brisbane vote.
The corporate governance resolution gained 113,858,565 votes (20.3
percent), while the resolution on ILO standards received 95,413,654 votes
(17.3 percent).
The resolutions were part of a global campaign backed by the CFMEU, the
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), the American Federation of Labor
and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the British Trades
Union Congress (TUC) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy,
Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
The ICEM, to which the CFMEU is affiliated, is a global industrial union
federation representing more than 20 million workers of all continents.
This was the first time that trade unions had mobilised shareholder action
of this kind at the global level. It was part of an ongoing campaign by the
ICEM and its affiliates to ensure that Rio Tinto respects trade union
rights world-wide.
PEACE CALL WELCOMED
Tony Maher, President of the CFMEU Mining and Energy Division, welcomed
today's remarks by the two Rio Tinto chiefs. Maher called on the company to
demonstrate the sincerity of its commitment by sitting down with the union
to resolve the issues confronting workers at its operations.
"I was particularly pleased to hear the Chairman, Mr Wilson, admit to
shareholders that the company had made mistakes in the past in employee
relations," Maher said. "If Rio Tinto matches its rhetoric at this
morning's AGM with action at its operations, the time is now ripe for the
unions and the company to go forward together in a mutually beneficial
relationship."
Hundreds of Australian miners demonstrated in Brisbane just before the AGM.
They travelled from mines across Queensland and New South Wales to press
for full trade union rights at Rio Tinto operations. Their protest was well
covered by Australian television and other media.
GLOBAL AGREEMENT?
"We warmly welcome Rio Tinto's express commitment to respect trade union
rights in Australia," commented ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in
Sinaia, Rumania, today. "The ICEM hopes that the outstanding industrial
disputes in the company's Australian operations can now be resolved quickly
and fairly.
"Once that is done," Higgs said, "Rio Tinto and the ICEM can get down to
negotiating a global agreement. Issues that could be covered in such an
agreement include trade union rights and other human rights, health, safety
and the environment, and equality at work. A global agreement would be in
the best interests of Rio Tinto workers everywhere, but also of the company
itself and of all its stakeholders."
_______
Individual ICEM UPDATE items can be supplied in other languages on request.
Our print magazines ICEM INFO and ICEM GLOBAL are available in Arabic,
English, French, German, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
Visit us on the Net at www.icem.org
ICEM
avenue Emile de Beco 109, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium.
tel.+32.2.6262020 fax +32.2.6484316
Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]=20
Editor: Ian Graham, Information Officer
Publisher: Fred Higgs, General Secretary
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