Media release – Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, 24 August 2023
Grange Resources risking big payday as electricians walk out indefinitely
The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union today said that electricians at Port Latta have walked off the job indefinitely, putting the next shipment of iron ore in jeopardy.
Negotiations with Grange Resources for a new enterprise agreement have been ongoing for 9 months with 2 previous offers being rejected by workers because it would have been a wage cut in real terms and didn’t address parity issues between workers on site.
CEPU State Organiser Chris Clark expressed disappointment that the Grange Resources Tasmanian management team aren’t putting Tasmanian workers and the Tasmanian local economy first, instead opting to make maximum returns for their overseas shareholders their main priority, with profits shipped offshore never to be seen again.
The rare mineral resource which is mined at Savage River and then pumped to Grange Resource’s Port Latta processing facility on the northwest coast of Tasmania is of a rare high quality and fetches a premium price on the world market, returning over $500 million dollars’ worth of profits to Grange Resources and fat dividends to its shareholders in recent years.
“These rare minerals belong to Tasmanians and can only be dug out of the ground once, when they’re gone, so are all the jobs, and the wealth they create should benefit both the Tasmanian community and Grange Resources enterprise equally” Mr Clark Said.
There have been lean times at Grange Resource too. When the commodity price tanked and the viability of the operation was in jeopardy around 2012, the loyal, dedicated workers approached management and gave up an entitled pay increase, instead opting for a 0% increase and taking a real-world wage cut to provide relief for the operation.
This gesture of goodwill by the workers has been forgotten by Grange Resources’ board of directors, with shareholders looking to cash in, now that times are good again.
The board’s original offer was a 2% pay increase per year, their reason for this disrespectful offer was that workers had dared to ask for a pay increase that kept up with the skyrocketing cost of living and also to keep pace with other mining operations on Tasmanians west coast, and the workers at Grange Resources had to be put back in their place.
“It seems that it is never a good time for a pay rise in this country,” Mr Clark said, “when the cost of living is low, it’s not the right time, when the cost of living is high, it’s not the right time, when profits are low, it’s not the right time, when profits are high, it’s not the right time. There is a pattern here that needs to be called out.
“The attitude shown by Grange Resources is a perfect example of why there is a skills shortage in Tasmania, another company ignoring electrical workers and apprentices” Chris Clark said. Mainland wages and conditions are incentives for tradespeople to hop on a plane for the north island. This short, sited attitude to keep Tasmanian wages as low as possible is a business model made from a house of cards.
“Grange Resources shareholders should be embarrassed with the conduct of its Tasmanian management, their dispute with electrical workers has cost far more in lost production than it would have, to have meet the electrical workers claims for pay parity,” Chris Clark said.
“The company knows its directly employed electrical workers are being paid less than the subcontractors they work side by side with while doing the same work on Grange Resources sites and they don’t care,” Mr Clark said.
As the vacancy rate for positions at Grange Resources continues to climb, 70 unfilled positions at last count, the do more with less attitude of management is a ticking timebomb, who is going to be accountable when that bomb goes off.
“This approach in a worsening skill shortage has already made Grange Resources a last resort for quality labour, with the existing workforce weighing up their options should the outcome of the negotiations see them as the lowest paid tradespeople on site. It may already be too late for Grinch Resources to come back from this,” Mr Clark Said.
CEPU members remain ready and willing to resolve the dispute and pay parity is more than fair and reasonable.
