Democracy Now: Union Workers in CA Town Locked Out by Mining Giant Rio Tinto

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/26/labor_struggle_in_boron_union_workers

The California mining town of Boron is the site of the second-largest borax mine in the world. A labor struggle is unfolding between some 600 workers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 30 and the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. Workers at the mine have been locked out of their workplace for nearly two months after contract negotiations with Rio Tinto hit a stalemate. We talk to one of the locked-out workers and a spokesman of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.



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* "Labor War in the Mojave" (The Nation)


AMY GOODMAN: That’s certainly what the workers are saying in the Mojave Desert right now, but that’s Johnny Cash singing “Won’t Back Down.” I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonzalez. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. Juan?

JUAN GONZALEZ: And we go to California into the Mojave Desert mining town of Boron. It’s the site of the second-largest borax mine in the world and an unfolding labor struggle between some 600 workers, represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 30, and the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto.

While the international news media are focused on the upcoming bribery trial of four Rio Tinto employees in China, half a world away, in southern California, workers at the Boron mine have been locked out of their workplace for nearly two months, after contract negotiations with Rio Tinto hit a stalemate. On January 30th, the workers rejected a contract proposal they said would scrap their seniority system and allow the company to hire more non-union employees. In an article for The Nation magazine, author Mike Davis described the company proposal as, quote, “Rio Tinto, in essence, claims the right to rule by divine whim” and “to blatantly discriminate.” The day after workers turned down Rio Tinto’s proposal, the world’s third-largest mining company proceeded to lock out Boron’s 570 union workers and brought in temporary replacements.

AMY GOODMAN: We invited the Rio Tinto’s US spokesperson, Susan Keefe, on the program, but we didn’t get a response. She told Reuters last month the mine had to, quote, "modernize its work practices” to keep up with the competition.

For more on the story, we go to two guests in Burbank, California. Terri Judd is one of the locked-out workers at Boron. She’s a third-generation borax miner and a US Army veteran. Craig Merrilees is the spokesman of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Let’s begin with Terri. Describe what’s happening now. Remember, you’re talking to a global audience here who may not have even heard about Boron or the Boron mine. You’re locked out right now. What is the struggle all about?

TERRI JUDD: Our struggle is about this Rio Tinto, a foreign-owned company, basically coming in and, you know, trying to destroy our family life, trying to destroy our communities. They want to force us to, you know, work overtime when we’re not scheduled to work, forcing us to take part-time jobs and pretty much turning them in—or taking our full-time jobs and turning them into junk jobs. That’s primarily what our struggle is about.

FULL story and video at link.