New Tara crisis looms as cost-cutting is rejected by miners

Uncertainty once again surrounds the future of Tara Mines in Navan this week, where 670 people are employed, after miners rejected 'survival' proposals presented by the company. The global economic crisis has brought about a collapse in zinc prices, with major stockpiling of ore having taken place at mines around the world. The price of zinc has sunk over 60 per cent in the past 12 months. All of the top executives of mining companies in the Swedish Boliden group, of which Tara Mines is one, met last week in Stockholm to discuss measures to stay in operation throughout the current difficult period. The mine"s SIPTU members reached the decision to reject the company"s proposals at a general meeting last week in Navan"s Newgrange Hotel. The meeting lasted for almost three hours and saw many contributions from the floor. This week, Tara Mines management continued to insist that the budget it had presented to miners and other workers represented an attempt to keep the Navan operation viable for next year. 'As a management team, we"re making an effort to get a budget which will keep us going for next year,' said the company spokesman. The company added it had received no official notification in writing of the outcome of last week"s SIPTU general meeting. The main bone of contention for miners is the company"s plan to introduce seven-day working at Tara. Weekend working already takes place at the Navan mine but is paid for as overtime. Controversially, this would not be the case under the new proposals. Fitters working underground would also be affected by the measures sought. Proposals for bonus capping, no pay increases next year or new recruitment also met with resistance from the SIPTU members. The union represents 370 workers at Tara Mines. The company said this week it was 'very disappointed' at the rejection of its proposals by the SIPTU union members. A scheduled Boliden board meeting on Thursday 4th December apparently may now be brought forward to an earlier date, possibly next week, to discuss the issues which have arisen in Navan. Clearly, the company had been hoping to get the go-ahead from the underground workers in Navan for the package so that it could be presented more strongly to the board. It is understood that other mines in the Boliden group operate seven-day working already. The Tara Mines position is that this increases their efficiency in comparison with the Navan operation. Meath SIPTU branch secretary, John Regan, said this week his members were worried about this new set of cost-cutting and productivity measures, just months after an agreement, scheduled to remain in force until 31st December 2010, was adopted. Mr Regan added that major investment in the mine"s mill was part of this agreement. SIPTU also has members in that section of the operation overground. He said it now appeared that more cost-savings were being sought by the company if the mill investment was to go ahead. The SIPTU official added that his union had been available to meet management on Monday of this week but no arrangements have been made so far. A previous global zinc price collapse led to a temporary shut-down at Tara Mines in 2001 and the mine previously was put on a care-and-maintenance basis for several months during a fitters" strike in the 1980s. After it was placed on care-and-maintenance in 2001 on account of high production costs, Tara restarted operations in 2003 and produced 2.55 million tonnes of ore, the highest tonnage since 1995. It remains the largest zinc mine in Europe and ranks fifth in the world. Some of its output is delivered to Boliden"s Odda and Kokkola zinc refineries in Norway and Finald, respectively, both formerly owned by Outokumpu, and the remainder goes to European customers.