Back to the Future: Can unions be trusted not to turn back the clock on mine sites, or have they reformed?

Even the staunchest union advocates admit the misbehaviour of unions in the Pilbara’s iron ore industry in the 1980s went too far. Or as others have simply put it, they took the piss and abused their powers, ultimately bringing their own downfall. The sheer scale of industrial mayhem in the period was evident in the thousands of yellowing news clippings from the archives of The West. The turbulent time has been thrust into the spotlight as unions seek to bolster their influence in the industry, courtesy of new Federal laws that allow unions to start collective bargaining without the majority support of the workforce they represent. A team of union leaders, operating under the banner Western Mine Workers Alliance, was heading there this week to build support among BHP workers at its Area C and South Flank mine. Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA chief executive Chris Rodwell said the move runs the risk of “dragging us back to the bad old days of the 1980s.” The chaos of that period came to a climax in what was the infamous Robe River dispute. It brought the unions to heel in the Pilbara, ending their dominance at mine sites in the region. The ripple effects were felt nationally. Prior to the battle, there were numerous examples of unions calling all the shots. “The unions could do anything they wished,” Luigi Lucivero, a former general foreman at Cape Lambert, told the Human Rights Commission hearing in 1990. He said union conveners were paid by the company but worked full-time on union duties, with offices and telephones supplied by Robe and their vehicles washed and serviced by company employees. Other witnesses said the company would do almost anything to avoid confrontation with the union officials, who would call the men out on strike on the slightest pretext. A book, published by conservative think-tank, the Australian Institute for Public Policy, catalogued examples of what unions got away with up until 1986. Author Patrick Gethin cited an occasion in May 1986, when a minor substation fault cut the electricity supply from a power station operated by Robe River which supplied the whole Pilbara grid. Powerhouse superintendent Ray Knap pressed a switch resetting a circuit breaker and restoring power to the community. The Electrical Trades Union (ETU), which was on strike at the time, maintained that only a union tradesman was entitled to reset the circuit breaker and demanded Mr Knap be disciplined with a five-day suspension. When the company caved in and suspended him for two days the union was not satisfied and downed tools for six days, Gethin wrote. He claimed the average Robe shop steward had more power than a company manager. Union subscriptions were collected via payroll deductions. Gethin cited more than 200 restrictive practices, which shackled the company’s productivity. He said unions had to be given five days’ notice before a contractor could be engaged to work on site even though the task was often outside the scope of the company workforce. Once the contractor made it onto the site the company was obliged to pay its employees in the area where the work was to be done as though they had done the job. Workers were rostered to be given their turn at overtime as it came up. If a worker missed his turn the company was obliged to pay him double time as well as the employee who actually did the job. Each time a worker was called out after hours he was paid a minimum of four hours’ overtime for each job he did. If, for example, this amounted to three tasks, which took 15 minutes in total to complete, the worker would earn 12 hours at double time. The man who took the unions on and won was Robe River’s then-new chief executive Charles Copeman, who dismissed five of the company’s top management before sacking 1100 iron ore workers. The dispute ran for three months. The late Mr Copeman became the darling of Australia’s emerging new Right but was reviled by unions and Labor, which claimed the pendulum had swung too far. On retiring in 1987, Chief Industrial Commissioner Bruce Collier said the commission had saved the day. “Without the commission, it would have been just a brawl and there would have been no winners but the greatest losers would have been Robe River,” he said. “I did not blame the company for embarking on shock tactics there was a shocking imbalance of power. The Pilbara iron-ore industry was fraught with rorts and Robe River was the worst of all.” After the initial shock tactics, though, he’d hoped that Robe River would back off and negotiate with the unions to do away with the work practices. “Robe River showed no goodwill to either the commission or the unions ... Robe worked at emphasising the legalities to the exclusion of the morality.” “The whole industrial relations system in Australia is built on goodwill and it is impossible to get a permanent solution to problems without goodwill.” Peter Dowding, who was WA’s Premier from 1988 to 1990, said Mr Copeman’s actions were too extreme. “There were stories of cleaning ladies being put out to work on the rail lines, and Copeman himself was a complete lunatic,” he said. “He very foolishly, accused me of having been trained in Russia, and and I sued him for defamation. “There were things about the union movement, certainly back in the 1980s, which were less than admirable, but unions nowadays are much more sophisticated and much more directed at achieving good outcomes for people.,” he said. “There needs to be a process in which the voice of the worker is heard,” he said. “Just look at what Lang Hancock and previous operators of Wittenoom mine did. Hundreds and hundreds of people died of asbestos-related diseases because the employer didn’t give a rats about them.” Liberal leader Libby Mettam said unionisation in the Pilbara and the mining industry was “deeply concerning”. “This amounts to economic vandalism and is of great and significant risk to the State and productivity going forward,” she said. Deputy Premier and Treasurer Rita Saffioti encouraged businesses and unions to work together with “goodwill” to continue WA’s strong resources sector. “Having a productive and good working relationship between unions and major companies means that there can be a win-win,” she said.