By Jim McIlroy
BRISBANE, May 21 — As we go to press, a return-to-work recommendation is to be put to a mass meeting of Mt Isa workers on Monday, May 22. Whatever the vote at the meeting, it is clear that the workers face an ongoing struggle to defend their rights, wages and conditions.
The recommendation follows acceptance by the Mt Isa Combined Unions Disputes Committee of a proposal from ACTU president Martin Ferguson to end the strike to allow talks with MIM to proceed.
Ferguson said the plan included the establishment of a consultative framework to "facilitate a fresh approach to enterprise bargaining at MIM".
However, when Ferguson and ACTU state president Dave Harrison visited picket lines at the Mica Creek power station near Mt Isa on the evening of May 20, they were criticised by angry picketers who said a return to work simply to facilitate talks with the company was not good enough.
Reports indicate that the three excluded unions would be included in some fashion in negotiations for a new enterprise agreement. And apparently, the key issue of the airfares to Brisbane and company-paid medical benefits will be up for renegotiation.
But a fiery meeting seems certain, with many workers angry at the limitations of the proposed return-to-work plan.
Federated Clerks Union secretary Jim O'Donnell said: "The people of Mt Isa have been seen as expendable for political considerations. I'll be speaking against the resolution, and although I was told to shut up today, I can't sit by and cop this."
O'Donnell said he believed true progress on negotiations with MIM management were being politically stymied to please the state Labor government.
"The Goss budget comes down this week, the opposition will have time to reply and then the government is set for an election. Politics is now driving this agenda, and it looks like we have won the battle and lost the peace."
O'Donnell said unionists were being sold out. "We lost in [the big six-month strike of] 1964 and I am not going to cop it this time."