Workers from Peabody’s Metropolitan Mine at Helensburgh have been locked out amid enterprise disputes. Photo: Peabody.
Helensburgh miners have been locked out of work without pay for more than a week in response to union industrial action.
Enterprise negotiations for workers at the Metropolitan Mine have escalated, with the Mining and Energy Union (MEU) accusing the mine owner, US company Peabody, of using “intimidation” and “Trump-style bullying tactics” to “coerce” members to back down on their bargaining position.
Tensions spiked after union members engaged in one-hour shift stoppages in a response to stalled negotiations which prompted their employer to take swift action by locking them out.
“Metropolitan Mine acknowledges that employees have engaged in industrial action and the union notified the company of further industrial action to come,” a Peabody spokesperson said.
“In response, Peabody made the decision to implement employer response action, with a lockout of employees commencing night shift Wednesday 18 June and continuing until day shift Thursday 26 June.”
MEU South West District Vice President Mark Jenkins slammed the ‘harsh’ decision.
“Peabody’s move to lock out MEU members for over a week is nothing but an attempt to punish and intimidate workers for exercising their industrial rights,” he said.
Mr Jenkins said the lockout notice came less than two hours after a Fair Work Commission-facilitated conciliation meeting on the dispute.
“That well-resourced multinational employers are able to deny workers a full week’s wages in retaliation for comparatively minor industrial action is an indictment of the disproportionality available to employers under the current laws,” he said.
“Peabody needs to drop the Trump-style bullying tactics and engage constructively with MEU members’ demands.”
He was determined that the move would not make them buckle.
“Helensburgh miners aren’t intimidated by Peabody’s heavy-handed strategy; it has only strengthened their resolve to secure a better deal for their families and workmates,” Mark said.
“Through several years of low wage growth compared to high inflation and cost-of-living pressures, workers at Helensburgh have been continually setting production records at the mine for their employer.
“Now, they deserve to see some of the benefit that they were promised in the last agreement.”
It’s not the first time Peabody has taken this type of action during negotiations, locking out workers for eight weeks from July to August in 2022 following an hour and a half of industrial action.
Despite the forceful reaction to the union’s move, discussions are set to continue. A Peabody spokesperson said the organisation “remains committed to the bargaining process and will continue to negotiate in good faith toward a new enterprise agreement”.
