The lockout by the US-based company is in an apparent retaliation to a protected industrial action by the union to push for an acceptable enterprise agreement. In an effort to resolve the dispute the workers had already made huge concessions in the negotiations, an effort towards which Peabody Energy Australia displayed total indifference.
Workers had agreed to a 12 months’ pay freeze in line with Peabody Energy Australia’s wage reduction demands, as well as undertaking mine stabilisation during the industrial action in the interest of safety.
CFMEU National President Tony Maher says:
"Mining companies like Peabody have been making fat profits for years during Australia's biggest-ever mining boom, yet at the first sign of a slowdown in commodity prices they attack jobs and wages to prop up shareholder returns.”
The lockout is aimed at forcing the trade union to accept an agreement "which reflects current market conditions, lifts productivity, reduces costs, enhances safety and provides greater job security for Metropolitan mine employees," according to a company spokesperson.
Tony Maher has a different take on that:
“It's a shoddy way to treat loyal workers. After all, Peabody can afford to do the right thing. A lockout is a copout and with Peabody a worker is a nobody."
Peabody Energy Australia’s parent company, the US based Peabody Energy, has recently been forced into a settlement over retirees benefits after a year of protests, rallies and court battles with the United Mineworkers of America.