More miners add voice to Solid Energy protest 

Source: ONE NewsSpring Creek Mine, near Greymouth

Workers from the Spring Creek Mine near Greymouth are striking on Thursday, joining three other mines in their stand-off against Solid Energy.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) spokesman Rob Egan told NZPA 145 workers would be picketing in support of colleagues in Waikato.

Huntly's Rotowaro open-cast workers were locked out on October 27 after beginning go-slow industrial action in response to failed contract negotiations with their employers.

About 160 Huntly East underground mine workers walked out in support the following day and on Tuesday 400 workers at the West Coast Stockton open-cast mine also walked off the job indefinitely.

All four mines are part of a multi-employer collective agreement (Meca) with Solid Energy and its contractors, which has not been ratified despite expiring months ago.

Union representatives from the Waikato mines attended a mediation with Solid Energy and its contractors in Hamilton on Wednesday, but were unable to reach an agreement to come back to the negotiating table.

EPMU national mining advocate Ray Urquhart said the workers offered to restart negotiations from tomorrow while remaining on strike, and planned to return to work on Monday if progress was made in the negotiations.

However, Solid Energy communications director Vicky Blyth said the company would not bargain while the strike continued.

"We would be looking for the industrial action to be lifted to enable good-faith bargaining to take place," she said.

EPMU spokesman Ged O'Connell said the Meca negotiations had reached a stalemate.

"This is a battle that the miners have had with Solid Energy for some years now, in terms of how its contractors deal with its employees.

"Often there's an arrangement made between Solid Energy and its contractors without involving the employees, and when it gets to them we find it doesn't fit, so then there's a breakdown with the contractor."

O'Connell said in the case of the Rotowaro mine, the contractor was insisting on new rosters which the workers were unhappy with.

While workers at the three other mines had stopped work in support of the Rotowaro workers, O'Connell said they were also suffering from the same problems  with contractors and that Solid Energy needed to address the issue.

"When they make arrangements with contractors that affect their employees without consultation with the employees it's foolhardy," O'Connell said.

"You can't screw your contractor, then have the contractor screw his employees and say `oh, it's nothing to do with me'. It's their problem."