From: "Vikki John" <VIKKI-AT-lexsun.law.uts.edu.au> Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 17:05:58 GMT-1000 Subject: M-NEWS: (Fwd) RIO TINTO 'S DICTATOR MATES WHY RIO TINTO CAN'T BUY HUNTER VALLEY MINERS It is no coincident that the onslaught on Australian coal mineworkers rights and conditions is being led by one of the world's most ruthless foreign multinationals - the British-based Rio Tinto - at its Hunter Valley No.1 mine and coal reparation plant in NSW. Rio Tinto is demanding that its unionised workforce surrender security of employment and anti-victimisation provisions fought for by generations of coal mine workers before us. Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver for betraying Jesus - Rio Tinto puts the modern price for treachery at $170 a week at Hunter Valley. But the Hunter Valley mineworkers can't be bought - they won't sell their souls. Out of a production and engineering workforce of 420, only 7 sold out to Rio Tinto - 98% have stuck with their principles and the Union. Historically, Rio Tinto is not used to well organised and determined workers, like those at Hunter Valley No.1, Vickery and Weipa, standing in their way. They don't like it. It's a blemish on their brutal pedigree. RIO TINTO'S DICTATOR MATES Rio Tinto has dealt with some of the most vicious dictatorships in history. In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War when the fascist dictators Hitler and Mussolini were in an alliance with General Franco to overthrow the democratically elected government, Rio Tinto had mining interests in Spain. Guess which side Rio Tinto was on? This is what Rio Tinto chief Sir Auckland Geddes told the company's shareholders at its 1937 annual general meeting in London: "Since the mining region was occupied by General Franco's forces, there have been no further labour problems ... Miners found guilty of troublemaking are court-martialled and shot". Rio Tinto went on to prosper from the misery of apartheid in South Africa and moved into Chile in the 1980s after the brutal military dictator General Pinochet had overthrown the democratically elected Allende Government. In more recent times, Rio Tinto's involvement in Bougainville has cast a darker shadow over the company. After the Sandline mercenary affair broke earlier this year, when Papua New Guinea government leaders tried to bring in armed foreign mercenaries to retake Rio Tinto's mine from Bougainville separatists, former Australian Financial Review editor-in-chief Peter Robinson was moved to write in his Sun-Herald column (6 April '97) - "And where does CRA-RTZ (now Rio Tinto) - still the owner of the Bougainville mine and itself a massive operator in international intelligence - stand on the whole affair? This is emerging as a deep multinational imbroglio of plot, counterplot and doublecross. Australia's role needs to be thoroughly exposed to public view". Today in Australia, Rio Tinto is obsessed with breaking the trade union movement. And while it has the support of the Howard Government in this, the company will find Australian unionists a harder nut to crack than many of its other unfortunate employees that have been brutally subdued by a shameful assortment of dictators. Authorised by Mick Watson, Northern District President of the United Mineworkers Federation (CFMEU Mining and Energy Division) 67A Aberdare Rd, Aberdare, NSW, Australia. ===========For futher information, please contact: Bougainville Freedom Movement PO Box 134, Erskineville NSW. 2043 Australia Tel: (+61-2) 9558.2730
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