 Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 7:15 pm | ||
Thanks, me too, if I get a chance I'll send more detailed info off line. Regards Shane |
| Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 1:02 pm |
| Thanks Shane, will keep you updated.
Cheers, Justin |
| Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:01 am | ||
Hi Justin, Thats great to hear you guys are talking to the powers at be, I'm sure if there was a few people who had finacial issues they may found something rather than just read a paper for 12hr, but that doesn't matter anyway now you have boats to load and more coming. Overall great news and hopefully a sign of things to come. Yes, I do. You may be aware that NZAS lost a potline in Nov, not related to the downturn, they had transformer failure and both spares were out for repairs. There is no near plan to restart and they do not have funding to repair the transformers enough to restart. I think this took some heat off. BSL and Tomago should be fine for now as we are fairly low cost although its questionable how much if any money is being made. Overall Australia's aluminium industry is doing ok and likely to remain so, however in Nth America, Europe and other high cost like China, things are not so rosey. Aloca has taken 500,000tpa off line (thats the size of BSL or Tomago (both fairly big)), Rio has cut production at a number of sites in theNth hemisphere etc. The low Aussie dollar will in general help all Australian exporters offset lower sales and lower prices. My finacial advisor also tells me the govt over the next 12mths will focus on even lower interest rates, but allow inflation to stay around 3-4% to deflat the higher wages that we have all enjoyed but in the end had little to show for due to higher everthing else over next year or so to help improve Australia's cost competitiveness on the world stage. As you may know, turning a aluminim smelter off is not an easy or cheap option unless you really don't want to restart. Normally they remove capacity by by-passing the power in some potline sections or not restart cells that fail, but a complete shutdown is hidiously expensive, so the industry will not respond as fast say iron ore to a down turn and in many cases and is happening now in some parts of Aus, some smelters are stockpiling aluminium in car parks etc rather than sell to the LME (lme.com) which already has record stocks at nearly 2mt. From what we are hearing the Rio aluminium production sites maybe left alone people wise with only minor cuts or simply delay recruitment to all but essential production people, however support and head offices is where I'm hearing things will be not so easy. I believe all the Rio head offices, ie Montreal and London and maybe Brisbane will suffer most of the 5,500 role loss pain. Since Rio got Alcan, there has yet to be any real cuts as they merger was a 2 year intergration plan. Production wise there would be few ex Rio aluminium production smelter managers that have "fat", Alcan wise, thats another story and part of the reason Rio bought Alcan (as we were all told). The heavily unionistic French and French Canadian's are not normally know for their "lean and mean" approach, unlike us Aussies. Regards Shane |
| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 1:32 pm | ||||
Shane, I agree. I have been telling everyone that legally you don't have to, however it would most likely be in your best interest to comply. The choice is yours. It shouldn't matter now anyway as we are loading boats now over xmas and they have informed us that anyone who wants to work now can. We are back to running 16 trains per day at the moment. I had a long chat with our production manager and was informed that we have a lot of boats coming in Jan - Feb and will be back at about 95%. How are things in the aluminum industry (I am assuming that is where you work) are you guys still in full production or have things slowed? What is morale like after the announcement last week? Cheers, Justin |
| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 11:12 am | ||
While I too would hate to be forced to use AL, I personally would not be pushing this issue at this time as it makes you a target for a forced redundency. Regards Shane |
| Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 12:51 pm |
| Yep, I think the big reality check just kicked in.
Hard to believe they are shutting the railway and assume miniing for two weeks. Brisbane head office of the Aluminium side is also closing for two weeks (and I don't think the workforce were asked and if I were them I wouldn't object unless I was indepently wealthy). Potentially with the pressure off tonnes and with much lower turnover at all levels and people at all levels more fearfull of their jobs, safety should improve. BHP is out the picture and really it wasn't going to happen and won't now for a few years unless Rio's share price dives more. So hard to believe the world has just cut back so much using steel, aluminium, copper, oil etc. This reccession is going to hurt all of us. Talking to people here, few of us are expecting a payrise for maybe next two years as the payrises over the last 2-3 years have been excessive and non-stainable without an underlying mineral price. Due to the very high wages many are now earning, it maybe possible that wages actually go backwards, not just hold. time will tell. Regards Shane |
| Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:06 pm |
| http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7774698.stm |
| Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 1:09 pm |
| A 12 day train drought sounds interesting, where are they going to store all the rollingstock, up track? |
| Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:21 am |
| Thanks Wickham, you are not ranting. The issues you raise are genuine concerns. I am the first to admit that I have made a few mistakes along the way with this thing. This is all new to me, I have never been any sort of union representative before. I am slowly learning by trial and error. Although I get a lot of support from the state office, i still am left to do a lot on my own.
It is very hard for me to get info out to the guys that are not members, I have been chipped about using the work email and they pull down any notices off the wall. If people like yourself have a list of ideas that you feel are important and need pushing please contact me as I would love to hear from people like yourself who have been with the company a lot longer than myself. This is usually where the best ideas come from, the people in the field. You must remember though at the moment until we get an agreement we are pretty much a toothless tiger. My email is cfmeuka@tpg.com.au You are right about the leave, nobody is game to put a foot wrong at the moment as they have seen what big companies can and will do in times like this. Thanks again for your comments, any feedback positive and negative is always welcome, I need all the help I can get. Cheers, JP |
| Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 11:40 pm | ||
Fair enough but i feel that the union has not communicated what is happening to us "non members" they very ones that are considering union membership which put's me off joining once i come off my AWA early next year and they are also the very people you need to help campaign against the company. I'm happy to take the leave also as it means i get to spend time in Perth with my family and grand kids but everyone is going to have to take leave as there is going to be no work and really i wouldn't want to be playing with the company at the moment as you could get told you are not needed and make you redundant which the company has every right to do as per AWA's. Even worse they may choose to terminate you with the notice that they require to give you. But they need to be getting rid of these skilled drivers, what a waste of money and all they do out here is sit around and according to friends inland it's even worse. The majority of them are absolute idiots and need to go back to Transperth where 80% of them come from. See most of the construction crew have become Rio, but those trips should also be an option on our rosters for us to choose whether we would like them. (That's something else the union should be pushing for) I have a list of things the union needs to be pushing for and as a Yard driver said to me today, it's not just the mainline drivers, you have the Car knockers and Yard Drivers to worry about, i know there are some Yard Drivers in the union but are there any car knockers in it? Think some of these guy's feel left out because they are on AWA's and not alot of whats been campaigned for effects these guys, maybe a sit down with knockers and yard drivers would get some more members?? But then again if what i heard was true about DM injuring a fellow employee, why would you join a union run by drunk's especially when they cause serious injuries to colleagues. But not sure if it even happened but i'm sure you or someone can confirm it? Hopefully we see some better training come out of next year and some of our longer serving guys get promoted to the next step not more skilled blokes coming in and stealing jobs and wasting our time training them. Also there is a rumour, certain drivers at 7 Mile have been offered Rio contracts? considering Sid said the very first day that they were nothing more than a stop gap and would never be offered contracts.............. pm1225 yes, meant the 4th January. Yes I think we are just Rio Tinto at the moment, sadly we wont be BHP  but there was talk of shutting down for a little bit in the 90's but it never happened but this is certainly happening!
Sorry about my ranting and raving but we seem to have plenty of time to chat these days as we don't leave the office and these issues obviously need to be expressed. |
| Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 10:30 pm | ||
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| Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 1:07 pm |
| Wickham you are right in the fact that we have stopped any further industrial action at the moment. Nobody could have predicted this downturn. Any industrial action would be futile at this point. This does not mean we have packed up and thrown in the towel. That will never happen.
As far as the industrial action being for nothing, it is about having a go. We are having a go and will continue to do so until we do eventually achieve something. It would be easy to give up now, then it really would have been for nothing. Membership continues to grow. With the new IR laws having been bought forward to July 09 and provisions in the bill going our way, we will most likely be at the table with Rio by the end of next year. We had an industrial lawyer look at our AWA and award, he has advised that no employees can be forced to take leave during the period that operations will be shut down. It is a request only to take leave, which I personally will be making use of because it suits for me to do so. However if using up your leave at this stage does not suit, you can not be forced to use your leave. Cheers, JP |
| Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 8:44 pm |
| I notice this thread has fallen very quiet and indeed the union boy's at work haven't said a word.
The only thing i have seen/heard from them is the email that was passed on to me by a colleague. Funny that, Strikes which hurt the company 3 weeks ago would now help the company, save some money and resources. And really all the guys who lost money and went on strike it was all for nothing from what i have heard as Rio has not come to the table and never will. Also for those not in the know the ENTIRE Iron Ore Operation's will shut down between 22nd December and Recommence on the 4th December. Rail Employee's are being forced to take leave across this period. So No trains for almost 12 Days. |
| Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:35 pm |
| Will we really?
We will see!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:37 pm |
| LEAN TIMES AHEAD
I have heard, (don't take this as gospel) we are cutting back to 9 trains a day. 7 Yandi and 2 other. I don't know if this is true but a couple of mines are actually going to be stopping production and going into caretaker mode. All projects that haven't started have been suspended, ROC, rail and yard expansions, no word on ATO. As I said I haven't heard any of this officially yet. I don't like to scare people but I think this downturn has the potential to affect all of us not just contractors. I read this morning that China intends spending over $A400b on rail and other projects to try and get things kick started again. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24551437-38197,00.html Rail to the rescue again hey? 
Anyway folks, good luck I know we will all come through this OK. Besides, on the $210k we've been earning we should be all set to retire by now anyway. 
Cheers, JP |