This document is a plain English summary of the state of play in the various current and recent disputes with the company. In late 1999 BHP Ltd, Australia's largets mining company, began an aggressive push to transfer all of its iron ore industry workers from union-negotiated collective agreements to individual employment contracts. This collection of web pages documents some of the early days of the struggle to oppose that union-busting. As of June 2001 the effort was continuing. Despite a saturation media effort and more, BHP management has failed to shift more than half its workforce onto individual contracts.
Ample evidence is presented of the new law's aggressive attack on workers' rights and entitlements.
The Federal Government has also committed itself to a national scheme to protect other workers in the future. Discusses Award restructuring and Award stripping, their varying impacts in the workplace and the deterioration in safety and working conditions. Current trends in the industry are increasing rather than reducing risks for both workers and investors. This paper is a moderately detailed look at market distortions in trading practices and investment in the international coal trade, why those distortions hurt both investors and the Australian community, and what intervention is needed to correct the problem. The paper was originally written for presentation to the Australian Institute of Mines and Metallurgy conference in Canberra on 19 March 1999.