Solidarity defeats mining conglomerate in Mohave desert

[syndicat]

The nasty British-Australian mining conglomerate Rio Tinto, a company with a very dirty history, has been apparently beaten back in their attempt to crush the miners at the world's second largest Borax mine in the Mohave desert. The miners are members of ILWU and received an outpouring of solidarity from their own town, ILWU and the Teamsters union and others.

http://www.alternet.org/story/146885/union_victory_in_california_desert_--_workers_beat_back_most_of_rio_tinto's_demands?pag e=entire

[zimmerwald1915]

Mind enumerating just how this was a victory? The article is light on details, and I just got out of Finals Week at University and am really not in the mood to research the pre-lockout situation, Rio Tinto's demands, and the final settlement.

[syndicat]

well, as Jane Slaughter says in her article:



Rio Tinto had demanded the right to convert full-time jobs to part-time, gut seniority, cut pay at any time, and outsource.

To accomplish this, they had locked out the workers. Rio Tinto was just coming off a long nasty fight with Australian mining unions where it is attempting to completely automate one of the world's largest iron mines.

In short, Rio Tinto gave every indication of aiming to simply break the union. But the miners' struggle gained quite a bit of solidarity:

1. the town of Boron was solidly behind them. The local credit union, the only financial institution in the town, advanced workers money to cover expenses without requiring payment for several months.

2. the Teamsters union provided $55,000 in food.

3. because they were taking on the ILWU, there was also the potential that the longshoremen might block exports of borate through L.A. harbor.

4. numberous groups and unions were represented in the marches in the town

5. executives of Rio Tinto were being hounded by solidarity protests in London and Sydney.

the workers not only beat back the nasty demands but won a wage increase. it appears the only damage was a switch in the pension plan to a 401k.

[Ocean Seal]

In a world where seriously messed up things happen its always nice to hear some good news.