Page 12 - IB August 2024

Industrial Action Industrial Action

Vatukoula gold mine. Photo: Vatukoula Gold Mines plc

TURNING THE TIDE: INSIDE THE

LONGEST STRIKE IN FIJI’S HISTORY

By Aisha Azeemah At the outset, the then-operators of the mine, Emperor
Mines Limited, refused to acknowledge the demands of
Thirty-three years after it started, Fiji’s longest strike by workers stationed at a picket line outside the mine, deeming
workers at the Vatukoula Gold Mines came to an end in June, them absent from their positions and terminating their
with the Coalition government promising a payout of FJ$9.2 employment. This decision was backed by a Fiji High Court
million (US$4.6 million) for the workers as settlement with and later Court of Appeal ruling deeming the withdrawal of
the Fiji Mine Workers Union. labour by the strikers to be unlawful. The ruling enabled
Coming to FJ$25,000 (US$12,500) for each of the 365 Emperor to evict striking employees from their staff quarters.
workers, the settlement is too late for 68 others who died An outbreak of violence claimed the life of a court bailiff
during the strike, which protested working conditions. Their when police were mobilised to forcefully remove those
grievances included hefty pay deductions for the use of safety workers who had refused to abide by the order to vacate.
equipment required to work underground and being forced While Emperor’s tactics proved successful in forcing some
to work while ill – according to the findings of an Oxfam to return to the mines, hundreds remained determined to
investigation in 2003. continue the fight.
“The strike devastated the lives and livelihoods of
Vatukoula mine workers,” said Fiji’s Finance Minister and Oxfam investigation
Deputy Prime Minister, Professor Biman Prasad, while When over a decade later the strike was no closer to
announcing the payout in his 2024-2025 Budget address. ending, the Fiji Mine Workers Union sought the support of
“Many families were shattered by the long-running strike international charity, Oxfam. Oxfam Mining Ombudsman,
action,” said Prasad. Ingrid Macdonald carried out an investigation at Vatukoula in
November of 2003.
The beginnings Having spoken with 50 striking miners, Macdonald reported
Vatukoula Gold Mines is located nine kilometres inland from that each one “alleged that the reason they decided to
the sleepy little town of Tavua, in northern Viti Levu. With a strike in 1991 was because of the low wages, unsafe working
population of just over 2400 in the 1996 Census, Tavua was conditions, health concerns, poor housing and environmental
declared a town in 1992. Hence, when the strike kicked off in standards”.
1991, for many in the communities in the area, the mine was According to her report, at the time of her investigations,
one of few means to a steady income. over 300 people still periodically sat on a picket line outside
With little alternative economic activity except for sugar the mine and complained of the hardships endured by their
cane farming, what, then, prompted hundreds of people to families because of their refusal to return to work until their
risk their livelihoods and stand against their employer for grievances had been addressed.
more than three decades? Macdonald’s report highlighted the stories of several

12 Islands Business, August 2024