Agmate and Gladstone QLD local John Mikkelsen [pictured] writes:
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Workers engaged on Gladstone’s Rio Tinto sites are hoping the 600 job losses about to take effect are not just the tip of the iceberg.
The worst part for employees who have not already been informed if they still have a job, is waiting for the axe to fall.
Several hundred of the people affected will know by this weekend as contractors and Rio implement more of the cull on workers announced a couple of weeks ago. But many of their colleagues still won’t know if they will be next to go, as the ranks of jobless in Queensland mining industries exceed 5000 this year.
The current cuts reflect a downturn in the aluminium industry, not directly linked to the controversial move by Chinese Government- owned Chinalco to acquire a $27 billion stake in Rio.
Thousands of workers in the aluminium capital of Gladstone and some far-flung mining communities have been nervously waiting as the clock slowly ticks down to Judgment Day on the Chinalco bid.
But it could take another couple of months before the smoke finally clears on the Chinese move to grab a big slice of their employer and its Australian resources.
Rio’s ambitious $55 billion merger with Alcan in 2007 is now an albatross around its neck, with major debt reduction a priority.
Collectively the Rio operations in Gladstone employed more than 3000 workers and contractors, many of whom have been waiting in limbo since the company first announced last year it would be axing 14,000 jobs world-wide. Earlier this year it foreshadowed a further 1100, but up until a couple of weeks ago, Gladstone had not felt any major effects.
Suddenly, all that has changed with the latest round of cuts biting deep and sending a clear message the company was not making idle threats.
Who knows how many more jobs could go if the Chinalco bid is rejected? Who knows how far the ripple effect will spread through the entire community?
There had been speculation the $2 billion stage 2 expansion at the Yarwun alumina refinery would be in the firing line; the latest announcement that completion would be delayed by two years rather than dropped, may offer some breathing space.
But there is much uncertainty about the Chinalco bid. Concerned Gladstone resident and long-time clean air campaigner, Ian Woodhouse, recently took a protest sign to some of the city’s busiest roundabouts, calling for a halt to foreign ownership of Australian resources. He is not alone, judging by several SMS text comments published in The Observer.
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“Three bowls of rice a day, coming soon to a workplace near you,” was one message.
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Another may have echoed the thoughts of some workers:
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“Instead of wasting our federal surplus on the great unwashed, who not buy up Rio Tinto… Before we all become refugees in our own country?”
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There has been strong opposition voiced on the national scene, including former treasurer Peter Costello, Greens Senator Bob Brown and Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce, who has also launched a protest petition on his website.
Ultimately a decision will be made on the Chinalco bid by Treasurer Wayne Swan after the Foreign Investment Review Board finally announces its finding. It will also have to be approved by shareholders in Australia and Britain, where there has been some strong opposition.
Meanwhile there are huge industrial projects in the pipeline to keep Gladstone firing in the future. At least three Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) plants are proposed, plus a nickel smelter, steel mill and pig iron plant, the combined costs of which would rival Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s controversial combined stimulus packages.
But none of that offers immediate hope to the hundreds of workers suddenly about to join the dole queues, or their nervous co-workers.
END
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