News

Reports today of abusive conduct on the picket line outside Glencore Oaky North mine, where hundreds of Australian miners have been locked out of work, are being used as a distraction from the real battle to save Aussie jobs.

Hundreds of mining families in Lithgow have had their futures’ secured for the coming decade, following a breakthrough in the CFMEU Mining and Energy campaign to stop delays in the approval process for the extension of the Springvale Mine.

A Community Meeting will be held on Monday 9 October at 9.30am at Ranger's Soccer Field opposite the entrance to Springvale Colliery to discuss the future of the Colliery and Mount Piper Power Station.

A message from our retiring General Secretary Andrew Vickers:

After 36-years as a full-time Union official I am retiring at the end of September this year.

Three quarters of the workforce at the coal wash plant attached to the Glencore Oaky North mine yesterday voted against an enterprise agreement put by the company which would erode their rights and conditions.

There are 45 workers at the plant.

Our Queensland and Northern Districts have recently held Memorial Days to pay respect to the workers who have lost their lives while working for coal.

One life lost at work is one too many, but in this industry the grim toll is high, numbering thousands.

The 19th & 20th of September are memorable in Queensland for the shock and sorrow they caused at Mount Mulligan (1921) and 54 years later at Kianga (1975).

by Paddy Gorman, Editor Common Cause

With this final issue of Common Cause, it is time for me to say Thanks to all of you I have had the great privilege to meet and fight alongside throughout my 38-years at our Union’s National Office.

Our journal Common Cause was first published in 1920. This edition, the last to be published, caps off a wonderful 97 years of publication.

The Construction, Forestry Mining and Energy Union has welcomed the call for a total Australian ban on dangerous cladding by a Senate Committee Inquiry into the highly flammable and life-threatening polyethylene core aluminium cladding.