The Mining Company's Way Or The Highway

[A big welcome to Crooks and Liars readers. Thanks Mike! - F.]

In case anybody still doesn't think Big Biz has us all by the short and curlies, go read about what it's done to one California desert town.

LATimes

Boron was built on borax. The dull, gray substance — used in detergents, fiberglass and flat-screen televisions — was discovered here in 1925. Soon after, hundreds flocked to this harsh, scorching landscape for jobs in the mine. They company paid well and offered good benefits. Generations of families worked there and job security was a given.

But times have changed.

Rio Tinto Minerals, the British-Australian conglomerate that operates the mile-wide strip mine, says it has lost 25% of the worldwide borax market and business must adjust to survive.

The company offered workers a new contract that included a 2% annual raise, a $4,000 signing bonus and an early-retirement package. In return, they demanded wholesale changes in the seniority system, the creation of more non-union jobs and the right to make some full-time jobs part time.

Over five months of talks, workers refused to accept certain proposals, especially those dealing with seniority.

When they showed up for work Jan. 31, the gates were locked and replacements had been bused in.

From KERO 23:

But union workers said it's Rio Tinto Minerals that hasn't been willing to negotiate.

Jack Libengood ILWU Local 30 said, "It's been about their contract, not ours. They haven't even really listened to our concerns across the table."

They didn't get to be the 4th largest mining company in the world by givin' a shit about you, pal. They don't like pesky unions standing up for your rights, either.

Go see video of "The Class Struggle And The ILWU Local 30 Rio Tinto Lockout". Powerful. Quite long at 28:30, but well worth watching.

Six hundred ILWU Local 30 miners in Boron California are in a life and death struggle with one of the biggest mining companies in the world Rio Tinto. On April 16, 2010 two of the locked out miners and labor supporters joined with them at the British consulate in San Francisco to demand an end to the union busting.

They make some damn good points about the future of the working man and the middle class.