VIC: Union change means coal strikes likely

AAP General News (Australia)
08-13-1999
VIC: Union change means coal strikes likely

Coal miners in Victoria have no intention of joining the national coal strike over
redundancy payments for the sacked Oakdale miners.

Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen's Association Victorian president TOM WATSON says they
haven't been asked to join in the dispute and nor do they have any plans to join.

But union changes mean that in the future, Victorian coal miners are more likely to take
part in national union actions -- which will place the state's electricity supply at risk.

The FEDFA is one of the many sub-divisions of the CFMEU whose Mining and Energy division
covers miners on the black coal fields of Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.

Mining and Energy division members have walked off the job to protest against the federal
government's failure to bail out the financially stranded Oakdale coal mine workers.

Victorian coal mining is limited to the brown coal fields of Gippsland which supply fuel
for most of the state's electrical generating plants.

But a spokesman for the Gippsland Trades and Labour Council says a special mining division
is being established to represent Victorian coalminers and more closely link them with the
Mining and Energy division.

AAP RTV ag/jlw/am/rat

KEYWORD: OAKDALE VIC (MELBOURNE)

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