News From USWA: Thousands Demonstrate in Australia as Unions Demand Decent Corporate Standards at Rio Tinto's AGM - USWA Unionists Protest Kennecott in Salt Lake Rally.

Business Editors

PERTH & SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2003

News From USWA:

An estimated 2,000 workers held a noisy and lively demonstration outside Rio Tinto Ltd. (NYSE:RTP) Perth headquarters yesterday morning in support of union representatives from the U.S., Canada and Australia who were on their way to attend the company's Australian annual general meeting (AGM) to demand decent corporate standards from the giant mining multinational. Rio Tinto is the third largest mine and minerals processing company in the world.

United Steelworkers of America (USWA) District 12 Director Terry Bonds led the North American delegation, and it included steelworkers and miners from Rio Tinto's operations in Canada and the U.S.

Bonds told the public meeting that Rio Tinto "is acting like a corporate thug at its Kennecott Utah Copper (KUC) facilities where it has walked away from formal contract negotiations. Worse still," said Bonds, "Rio Tinto is threatening to remove health benefits from the families of its employees there, including retirees who are the most vulnerable."

Australian Miners Union General President Tony Maher condemned Rio Tinto's "callous treatment of Australian mining families, particularly the families of the victimized Blair Athol mines that the company is trying to evict from their homes." Maher said that Rio Tinto is a company that spends a fortune on public relations to project a positive community image. "It would be far better if the company practiced decent corporate standards and let its record speak for itself," Maher said.

The public meeting was also addressed by a number of trade union leaders, including Construction, Forestry, Mining, Energy and General Workers Union (CFMEU) National Secretary John Maitland who said that the unions would continue to build their campaign of global solidarity to put pressure on Rio Tinto to do the right thing at all of its properties.

Maitland is also the president of the Rio Tinto Global Network - a coalition of trade unions that represent about 60 percent of the company's global workforce. The network has been in operation since 1995. In 2000, it achieved international recognition when it forced Rio Tinto to modify the company's anti-labor practices in Australia after a worldwide Campaign for Justice that included visits to Rio Tinto's AGMs and putting pressure on the company though a shareholders' resolution and other 'corporate campaign' measures.

At this year's Australian AGM, the union representatives continued to challenge the Rio Tinto board of directors on a variety of industrial and social issues. Kennecott retiree Wayne Holland Sr. told the directors that they should spare a thought for the plight of workers and retirees facing misery, sickness and premature death if the company removes their health benefits. In particular, he addressed himself to retiring Rio Tinto Chairman Robert Wilson who will soon retire with an A$40.4 million payout with no worries about his future health care.

The other union delegates also challenged the Rio Tinto board to respect workers' dignity by immediately withdrawing eviction notices against the Blair Athol families and not reducing the health benefits of Kennecott retirees. Other North American USWA delegates were Terry Thomas from KUC in Salt Lake City, and George Kean who is the USWA Local Union President at Rio Tinto's Labrador facilities.

In addition to the labor protestors, Rio Tinto board members have continually faced angry comments from environmental groups and community organizations, alleging massive environmental pollution and often-violent abuse of local populations and communities in Indonesia, Australia, South America and southern Africa.

Even as the protests at the AGM cooled down, 200 Rio Tinto workers and supporters turned up the heat at a May Day rally and protest outside KUC headquarters in Magna, Utah (near Salt Lake City), where 1,300 members of five unions are in dispute with KUC managers who illegally imposed an unfair labor proposal on the workers on 1 October 2002.

The five unions - the USWA, the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) - collectively bargain under the banner of the Kennecott Coordinated Bargaining Committee (KCBC), led by the USWA's Bonds.

"Today is May Day and it is a global day of solidarity," USWA District 12 organizer Fernando Terrazas, Jr. told the vibrant assembly of KCBC members, their families, and members of other Salt Lake area unions and community groups. "Around the world today, workers, environmental groups and community organizations are holding rallies like we are to tell Rio Tinto to live up to its fancy words. We say, 'Not a retiree dollar should go to Rio Tinto chair Robert Wilson until all of our retirees get their fare share.'"

Utah State Sen. Ed Mayne, a Democrat, who is also president of the Utah State AFL-CIO and a member of the USWA, followed Terrazas. "Give a fair day's pay for a fair day's work," Mayne began. "But these people (Rio Tinto and KUC executives) are not like that. They are 'global' and 'international' people who have no loyalty to any flag except the dollar sign. And that's the way it is. The workers around the world are in the same position that you (KUC workers) are in, and we need to show our solidarity.

"In Utah," Mayne continued, "we have (companies) like Kennecott Utah copper that slop at the public trough and don't pay the same property tax that you and I have to pay. They don't pay sales tax on new equipment. They don't pay sales tax on motor fuel. They don't pay any sales tax on pollution control equipment. How much does Kennecott take from the taxpayers every year in the state of Utah when we have senior citizens going without meals...when our children go without a decent educational system...when our children don't have healthcare. It is unconscionable...and we have to put a stop to it!"

Other speakers at the rally included IBEW representative Jack Matthews, Andy Triplett who is USWA unit chair at the KUC refinery; Gary Allred, USWA unit chair at the KUC concentrator; Scott Mullins, USWA Unit chair at the KUC smelter operations; and Cory Hilton of the IBEW.

Also speaking were Buddy Beck of PACE; and George Neckel, a leader in Utah Jobs with Justice - a coalition of labor unions, environmental groups, community organizations and religious groups that come together around issues of labor rights, social justice and economic equity.

www.uswa.org