Threat To Keep Mt. Isa Closed

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30629, 21 December 1964, Page 13

Threat To Keep Mt. Isa Closed

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) BRISBANE, Dec. 20. The management of Mt. Isa Mines, Ltd., has told the Australian Workers Union that the giant mine may close permanently if 32 union claims now outstanding are pressed successfully and recklessly against the company.

The Mount Isa management has offered to submit its complete accounts to the Queensland Auditor-General for examination.

It has told the A.W.U. it would ask for public release

of the Auditor-General’s report. The company has told the A.W.U. that no management —Government, union or private—could operate the mine except at a heavy loss if the 32 claims were successful. The A.W.U. is seeking redress of what it considers the men’s genuine grievances against the Queensland Government’s 1961 legislation.

This prevents the upward movement of bonus payments but permits their reduction.

The A.W.U. does not want to kill the mine from which many Queenslanders get a living, either directly or indirectly. Other sanctions of the Queensland trade union movement are more interested in smashing the A.W.U., which is pro-arbitration, than in the future of the mine. Closure of the mine would be catastrophic from the Australian viewpoint.

It would: Turn Mount Isa, which now has a population of 16,000, into a ghost town. Cost the Queensland Government up to £3 million a year, thus reducing funds available for schools, hospitals, roads. Cut Australia’s export income by £27 million a year. Discussions at a conference

yesterday under the chairmanship of the Industrial Commissioner (Mr H. J. Harvey) indicated the dispute would not be settled even if the miners won satisfaction from the A.W.U.-conducted court hearing for higher payments on Wednesday. Mr Harvey announced that a further conference would be held in Mount Isa. The A.W.U., which lost control of the mine-workers to anti-A.W.U. forces, is moving back into Mount Isa in a big way.

Its efforts would indicate whether the company was in a position to pay a higher bonus to employees. A similar investigation was held in 1959, before the bonus was fixed then.