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By Helen Clark and Christine Chen<\/p>\n
PERTH, May 29 (Reuters) – Hundreds of BHP’s electrical workers at Port Hedland in Western Australia will vote on potential strike action, a union said on Friday, raising \u200cthe risk of disruptions to iron ore shipments from one of the world’s biggest export hubs.<\/p>\n
The \u200cElectrical Trades Union (ETU) said it had begun the process for its members to authorise a strike, which could “very likely” take place by the end \u200bof June if a pay deal was not reached.<\/p>\n
The prospect of a strike comes after six months of stalled talks with BHP, the world’s biggest listed miner, to agree on a labour agreement, with workers seeking improved pay and conditions.<\/p>\n
“Our members haven’t taken this lightly,” Adam Woodage, the union’s state secretary, said at a press conference in Perth.<\/p>\n
“BHP have \u200cstalled negotiations for up to six months. \u2060There’s been little movement from the company, and what movement has come has been an insult to our members.”<\/p>\n
A strike would have a “significant impact on operations” and could bring the \u2060export hub to a halt, Woodage added.<\/p>\n
A BHP spokesperson said the miner was negotiating a new agreement with its port operations teams.<\/p>\n
“In the event of union disruptions at our sites, we have strong contingency plans in place to protect our people \u200band \u200bensure safe, reliable operations can continue,” the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
Port Hedland \u200bis one of the largest iron ore loading \u200cports in the world and the largest in Australia. It is linked to a number of BHP’s mines in the Pilbara region and is used for all of its iron ore exports in Western Australia.<\/p>\n
BHP’s labour agreement covers around 450 port workers, of whom about 200 are ETU members.<\/p>\n
Unionised workers will vote in the next two weeks to endorse work stoppages ranging from 15 minutes to 24 hours, the ETU said.<\/p>\n
“We anticipate they’ll endorse taking that \u200caction,” Woodage said.<\/p>\n
“BHP had a A$15 billion ($10.73 billion) profit (last year) … so \u200bthere’s plenty of money in the bank for BHP to share \u200bwith their workers, and our members are seeking \u200ba slice of that money.”<\/p>\n
BHP’s shares were up 1.4% at A$61.45 in afternoon trade, in \u200cline with the broader benchmark S&P\/ASX 200 index, \u200bwhich was up 1.2%.<\/p>\n
Separately, the \u200bETU is engaged in labour bargaining talks with Japan’s Inpex alongside the Offshore Alliance union for workers at the Ichthys gas plant in Darwin.<\/p>\n
Offshore Alliance, made up of the Australian Workers’ Union and the Maritime \u200bUnion of Australia, said on Friday \u200cthat planned strike action had been delayed until June 2 as talks progressed.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n