A-Infos (en) Rio Tintos 'most shameful practices'

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'most shameful practices'
Rio Tinto in the eye the storm
By Natacha DAVID

The ICEM has revealed the truth about the
ruthless world of Rio Tinto to the Annual General
Assembly of the company's shareholders.  Faced
with the titan of the mining industry, the trade
union response must be equally forceful.

Brussels, May 15 1998 (ICFTU OnLine): May 13 was
a black day in the history of British mining
giant Rio Tinto.  Addressing the Annual General
Assembly of the company's shareholders in London,
trade union leaders from the International
Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers'
Unions (ICEM) presented a detailed report
exposing the multinational's most shameful
practices, and threatened to reconsider its
pension fund investments in Rio Tinto if the
enterprise did not put an end to the violations
of trade union rights, human rights,
environmental rights and the rights of indigenous
peoples.

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   Forwarded News 'of interest to anarchists'
  see bottom of post for source of this item
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The ICEM also held a parallel assembly in London,
called a "factual general meeting".  The assembly
was open to the public and was aimed at drawing
public attention to Rio Tinto's business
practices.  Human rights activists, environment
activists, representatives of the indigenous
peoples of Indonesia, Colombia and Nevada (USA)
joined trade unionists in taking the floor.  They
told tales of exploitation and in same cases
outright terror caused by Rio Tinto, in
connivance with local authorities.  A
representative of the Guajira people of Colombia
explained how Rio Tinto had despoiled his people
of their land. He pointed in particular to the
activities in the El Cerrejon region.  "The name
El Cerrejon is a familiar one to us", commented
Vic Thorpe, General Secretary of the ICEM.  "It
has been the scene of many miners' strikes - in
some cases put down by military force.  This is a
good example of the community of interst between
the workers of Rio Tinto and other people who
suffer from Rio Tinto's operations."

Deliberately eliminating the unions

Rio Tinto is the biggest private mining company
in the world.  It directly employs some 51,000
people, but the incomes of many more people
depend, one way or another, on the activities of
the group.  The enterprise runs more than 60
mines and factories in over 40 countries.
 From Australia to Brazil, via Norway, the
Philippines and the Czech Republic, Rio Tinto has
built up an appalling record of human and trade
union rights violations, community destruction,
environmental damage and disregard for the lives
of indigenous people.

On the industrial relations front, Rio Tinto is
deliberately seeking to eliminate trade union
organisations in many of its establishmets.  For
example, it hands out bonuses to workers in an
Australian coal mine for producing coal "free" of
the involvement of trade unions. Again in
Australia, the enterprise which seeks by every
means to impose individual employment contracts
to circumvent collective agreements and
neutralise the trade unions has gone so far as
making staff available to the authorities to
draft labour legislation, an initiative deemed by
the International Labour Organisation's (ILO)
Committee of Experts to be a violation of the
right to organise and bargaining collectively, as
foreseen in international labour legislation.

Rio Tinto is also being taken to court in the
United Kingdom by workers accusing it of being
responsible for the cancers they contracted while
working in mines in Namibia.

The ICEM notes in passing that members of the Rio
Tinto board of directors, some of the highest
paid executives in the world, have promised to
award themselves a 33 per cent bonus if the
enterprise manages to get onto the "international
industrial league table", a list of 15 mining
enterprises drawn up by Rio Tinto management
itself.  This bonus could rise to 100 per cent if
the company reaches the top four in the league
table.  "Let's just say that the workers who are
responsible for Rio Tinto's wealth would be very
happy to get the same bonus" comments the ICEM
wryly.

Half truths and distortions

The vice-President of the ICEM, the Australian
John Maitland, was one of the trade union leaders
who bought Rio Tinto shares in order to be able
to take part in the shareholders general assembly
in London.  "I'd made what I and others
considered to be a moderate and responsible
statement. I emphasised that our  stakeholders'
report is part of our attempt to engage in
proper, constructive negotiations with the
company."

"I was amazed  by Wilson's response (Rio Tinto
Chairman Robert Wilson). Instead of answering my
points, he launched into a series of arrogant
character assassinations against officers of the
ICEM and the CFMEU (the Australian construction,
forestry, mining and energy union affiliated to
the ICEM).  He also accused us of engaging in
misinformation.  But in fact his own comments
were full of half-truths and distortions.  For
example, he told the meeting that a miners'
strike in Indonesia ended within three days.
That is correct, but he omitted to mention that
the strike ended because it was broken up at
gunpoint by the army."

"Then Wilson told shareholders that "The Way We
Work" had been "widely discussed" before it was
launched.  But was never discussed with unions at
Rio Tinto or with environmental and civic
campaigners.  In fact, Rio Tinto did send a copy
for comment to the ICFTU, whose  General
Secretary, Bill Jordan, sent back a closely-
argued 8-page critique. Not one of Bill Jordan's
comments was ever mentioned by Rio Tinto, and not
a single change was made to the document on the
basis of Bill Jordan's letter."

The ICFTU's involvement

The ICFTU fully supports the ICEM's campaign
against Rio Tinto.  After reading "The Way We
Work" Bill Jordan commented that it was "more a
public relations exercise than a credible and
serious commitment". Denouncing Rio Tinto's
business practices, and in particular the
enterprises attempts to individualise labour
relations, which undermines the very existence of
the trade union movement, the ICFTU General
Secretary wrote to his affiliated organisations
in the countries concerned to ask them to support
the campaign.  "The ICFTU is supporting this
campaign not only because the issues are
fundamental to the future of the trade union
movement, but because we believe that the ICFTU
and its affiliates can make a difference in this
effort to convince Rio Tinto to adopt and
implement decent industrial relations policies."
The ICFTU urged its affiliates to assist efforts
to make sure that governments and the general
public are aware of Rio Tinto's practices.
(http://www.icftu.org/english/tncs/etnindex.html)
.

A representative of the ICFTU was at the
international trade union meeting organised by
the ICEM in Johannesburg last February, a meeting
that the Rio Tinto Chairman strongly condemned at
the shareholders' meeting in London.  The
principal trade unions representing the workers
at the Rio Tinto mines around the world, which
are affiliated to the ICEM, decided to create an
ICEM Rio Tinto trade union network.  South
African President Nelson Mandela told a
delegation from the conference that "We condemn
in the strongest terms any government or
multinational company that does not allow
collective bargaining".

Cyber-campaign

As part of this ICEM campaign, the international
trade union network will use its page on the ICEM
web-site to consolidate the group, exchange views
and raise international public awareness of Rio
Tinto's business practices. In addition to
hosting the network, and above all its discussion
forum, the campaign web-page
(http://www.icem.org/campaigns/riotinto/index.htm
l) also gives reports, summaries of events and
press articles on the subject.  For all those who
want to take part, it is simply a question of
adding their name to the protest letters
available on the site, which are then
automatically sent to Rio Tinto management and to
governments.  Addresses for Rio Tinto around the
world are also available on  the web page.  And
as Rio Tinto's own web site "omits" to give any
telefax numbers or e-mail addresses, the ICEM has
kindly made Rio Tinto's decision-making centres
accessible via a  click of a mouse to all web
surfers.

Seeking dialogue

Vic Thorpe, ICEM General Secretary, who also
spoke to the Rio Tinto General Assembly, and was
also shocked at the arrogance and rudeness of the
company's directors, did nonetheless see a
positive point in the meeting.  "Rio Tinto
implicitly agreed that industrial relations are a
matter of global corporate policy.  Previously,
they had always hidden behind local management's
alleged right to manage.  If Rio Tinto are now
treating industrial relations globally, they
should take the next logical step and start
talking to the ICEM."

Despite provocation from Rio Tinto at the
Wednesday meeting in London, the trade unions and
other actors are determined to maintain a calm
and responsible approach.  "The idea is not to
break the company but to turn it into a good
corporate citizen, conscious of its
responsibilities to its stakeholders" emphasised
the ICEM's Vic Thorpe.  "We will continue to seek
dialogue, but at the same time Rio Tinto must
realise that its attitude has further cemented
the broad alliance of those who insist on real
changes in the company's practices.  More than
ever, the company will be under scrutiny
everywhere."  The ICEM has under lined the point
by taking as its campaign theme "No Place to
Hide" .

Contact: ICFTU-Press at: ++32-2 224.02.12
(Brussels). For more information, visit our
website at: http://www.icftu.org

Source : INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE
TRADE UNIONS (ICFTU) ICFTU OnLine...
119/980514/ND F E A T U R E



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