FED: Sacked coalminers take battle to Rio Tinto AGM

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FED: Sacked coalminers take battle to Rio Tinto AGM

Sacked coalminers from three Australian Rio Tinto mines will take their four-year battlefor reinstatement to the company's annual general meeting today.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union has won three separate court casesinvolving the unfair sacking of the coalminers by the mining giant.

The cases, heard before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission since 1998,have all resulted in decisions in favour of the CFMEU.

But the company has appealed each decision claiming the dismissals were justified and fair.

The cases involve miners at Rio Tinto's Hunter Valley and Mount Thorley operationsin NSW, and the Blair Athol mine in Queensland.

CFMEU mining president TONY MAHER says the court action has taken so long that threeof the coalminers seeking reinstatement have since died.

Mr MAHER says coalminers from around the country plan to gather outside Rio Tinto'sAGM in Melbourne tomorrow to demand the workers be given their jobs back.

A spokesman for Rio Tinto's Coal and Allied company, which operates the three mines,says the the company is anxious for the matter to be dealt with and is waiting for a decisionon the appeals.

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KEYWORD: RIO TINTO (SYDNEY)