Workers at Rio Tinto Gove operations will take industrial action over stalled wages

In protest over stalled pay negotiations, Rio Tinto workers at the Gove bauxite mining operation have planned to take industrial action.

According to the union, workers have not been paid a raise in three years as the company has put off talks on a new enterprise agreement.

Lloyd Pumpa, the United Workers union organiser, said, "All our members in Gove wanted out of this bargaining process was a few clauses tidied up and a reasonable wage increase afforded to them, at a mine which has constantly met or exceeded production targets for years."

"Workers are completely fed up with the blown-out process”, Pumpa added.

Pumpa said that protected industrial action across Gove operations was now ‘imminent’.

Gove Operations in Australia’s Northern Territory has been supplying the global aluminium industry with world-class bauxite for more than 40 years. Gove bauxite is shipped internationally and domestically to supply Queensland Alumina Limited and Yarwun refineries in Gladstone, Queensland.