PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Workers at Rio Tinto’s Port Waratah Coal Services (PWCS) subsidiary, in Newcastle, will take protected industrial action beginning on May 12, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) warned on Wednesday.

The industrial action was centred around a dispute over job security with the PWCS.

“When companies like Rio Tinto and PWCS refuse to engage in fair bargaining, those companies will always meet with the determination of workers to ensure a decent life for themselves and their families,” said MUA assistant national secretary Ian Bray.

“We would have preferred to reach agreement without taking these actions, but given Rio Tinto’s anti-worker, anti-union posture, our members are moving forward to exercise their legal rights.”

The industrial action would include a ban on overtime, for an indefinite period, Bray said.

All members of the MUA employed by PWCS would engage in an unlimited number of bans on the performance of work outside of an employee’s classification starting at 18:00 on May 12.

“Our members are strongly united,” MUA’s Newcastle branch secretary Glen Williams said.

“If it takes one day or one month or longer, we are going to outlast a company that has decided to throw away many years of mutually beneficial relations for the sake of profit.”

Williams noted that the dispute had nothing to do with productivity or flexibility, but noted that the union’s members had shown that they were a willing partner in mutually agreed workplace changes that have benefited both PWCS and its employees.

“PWCS has manufactured this dispute in an effort to achieve total managerial prerogative and replace long-term employees with contractors. The people of Newcastle deserve an explanation as to why PWCS has chosen to bring Rio Tinto's brand of international industrial bastardry to our town at a time of high productivity and flexibility that is reflected in the amount of coal that is being exported from the terminals.”

Talks between union members and PWCS have been ongoing for about eight months.

A spokesperson for PWCS was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.