Show your support for Hunter Valley miners

PSA Central Council, on Monday night, passed a reolution of support for the striking miners at Rio Tinto coal mine in the Hunter Valley.

The PSA was represented at yesterday's rally in Sydney and will be representented at the rally in the Hunter next week.

At yesterday's meeting, delegates representing the striking miners said the best support everyone else can give them at this stage are messages of support. These demonstrate that the miners are not alone, that people around the country realise the significance of their action, and this lifts their morale.

Branches and members of the PSA are encouraged to send their own messages of support. The address is: The Hunter Valley Miners
6 Bathurst Street
Abermain NSW 2326
Fax 049 304 267

The issue is simple - Rio Tinto has for two years refused to negotiate collective enterprise agreement. The 450 miners want the union to negotiate such an agreement. They want their union officials to represent them. The company does not want them to be represented by the union. The company wants the miners to sign individual contracts. In other words the company can use all the resources at its disposal but the workers cannot.

This dispute has major implications for every unionist and every worker. It is a direct threat to their right to be represented by persons of their own choice in pay negotiations or in individual matters.

The dispute has been exacerbated but the Howard Government's support of the company policy.

Rio Tinto, formerly known as CRA, is a UK based multinational, which has a particularly lousy record of employment relations around the world. Its practice of discriminating against unionists in the dispute at the Weipa aluminium mine is recent case in point.

So please pick up your pen or wordprocesser and compose a simple message of support, and send it off post haste.