I think she has a point actualy. When was the last time you saw an uncontracted staff member rock up to the tool box meeting and say how can we be more productive today? It's all about what's in it for me, too bad if the company goes broke.... Anybody checked what's happening with qantas lately?

When they all go broke, because everyone deserves a "fair" wage just for showing up.... I think vaGina (like that) is saying ... What You Gonna Do?

she is one abrasive individual.

That would be the barnicles[}:)]

Hamsta said...
$150K is obscene for a brain dead job.

not quite right Hammy,

that $150k is compensation for having a job that sends you brain dead

stephen

If you took her cash away she would just be a lonely old cat lady with a dried up minge. Prob working as a check out lady at IGA!

kk said...

she is one abrasive individual.

That would be the barnicles[}:)]

That is fantastic.

I don't see what all the fuss is about, did anyone actually watch her video? She highlights Australia's high cost of business, and the low wages of our competitors.

worrier said...

The $150 000 dump truck diver mentioned way up at the top of the thread. Go to Perth airport early morning and watch the Rocky crew getting on the plane to Gina's mines in their fluro gear.

Was there at 5:30 this morning.

Flouro gear and 200 series Landcruisers seemed the go. Stacks of them.

If she wants lower wages in Australia she would do better trying to convince the likes of RIO and BHP to stop paying $40 an hour plus to do menial jobs like cleaning.
The gubment has nothing to do with these wage rates, it's all supply and demand and largely to do with the dig it out quick while the iron ore price is high and damn the consequences.
Minimum wage has zero relevance on the mines whilst we have a country with such low unemployment rates.

Obviously the court of this forum's public opinion - she advises herself[}:)]

East coast - will keep the chalis this year

Not my first choice but go the HAWKS[}:)]

cheers
AP

My bit to wander off topic[}:)]

simstat said...

I see a lot of negativity here for the FIFO miners, the money they earn and the type of people doing it.
Well I have been doing it for more than a few years now including international FIFO and I love it. So does my wife, and so do my two daughters.

I make good money and like my job. The new family friendly rosters have me home 7 nights a fortnight and in that 7 nights home, I have 6 days off!
I actually get quality time with all of the family. I drop the kids at school, do parent help and pick them up again in the afternoon ( yes I actually like doing this). I get to kick back and enjoy a lunch out with my wife now and then while the kids are at school. All the chores and jobs are done by Friday so I can just hang out with the family all weekend. I get to actually relax with the family on my days off rather than cramming everything into two days. The weather window is also long enough that it is almost guaranteed I will get kite and surf time. The added bonus to this is the weekday sessions when the normal world are working.
The 8/6 roster also comes with 24 annual leave days per year which when added to the rostered breaks gives you 3x 20 day breaks a year!

Those that are complaining and stereotyping the FIFO miners are off track and those crapping on about the unions have absolutely no idea what is going on in the mines of today. The unions are virtually non-existent in the majority of operational mines.

Look past the media hype and cashed up bogan (minority) image and you will see a large group of people enjoying their lifestyle, paying off their houses by the time they are 35, and looking forward to an early retirement.

Good post simstat, I'm glad it's working well for you and many others. I have no real insight into that sort of lifestyle but could imagine it would work for me.

I know for a fact that the 9-5 in front of a computer monitor, 5 days a week, in the comfy East Coast cities of Australia, can be a very slow unrewarding death.

Adolfo, I gave the 5 day week thing a go earlier this year. Only lasted 8 weeks before I chucked it in and went back to FIFO. Commuting to the city to sit in an office full of negativity and attend meetings all day....no thanks. No promotion is worth missing out on the family time I get from FIFO. The "real world" doesn't know what they are missing.

As for Gina, I know a few people on her payroll ( I work for another company)and they do get coffee supplied. Like me, if they don't like what the company supplies, they buy their own.

adolf said...

simstat said...

I see a lot of negativity here for the FIFO miners, the money they earn and the type of people doing it.
Well I have been doing it for more than a few years now including international FIFO and I love it. So does my wife, and so do my two daughters.

I make good money and like my job. The new family friendly rosters have me home 7 nights a fortnight and in that 7 nights home, I have 6 days off!
I actually get quality time with all of the family. I drop the kids at school, do parent help and pick them up again in the afternoon ( yes I actually like doing this). I get to kick back and enjoy a lunch out with my wife now and then while the kids are at school. All the chores and jobs are done by Friday so I can just hang out with the family all weekend. I get to actually relax with the family on my days off rather than cramming everything into two days. The weather window is also long enough that it is almost guaranteed I will get kite and surf time. The added bonus to this is the weekday sessions when the normal world are working.
The 8/6 roster also comes with 24 annual leave days per year which when added to the rostered breaks gives you 3x 20 day breaks a year!

Those that are complaining and stereotyping the FIFO miners are off track and those crapping on about the unions have absolutely no idea what is going on in the mines of today. The unions are virtually non-existent in the majority of operational mines.

Look past the media hype and cashed up bogan (minority) image and you will see a large group of people enjoying their lifestyle, paying off their houses by the time they are 35, and looking forward to an early retirement.

Good post simstat, I'm glad it's working well for you and many others. I have no real insight into that sort of lifestyle but could imagine it would work for me.

I know for a fact that the 9-5 in front of a computer monitor, 5 days a week, in the comfy East Coast cities of Australia, can be a very slow unrewarding death.

P45,

Just went through some figures and I reckon I have had a steady salary increase to a total of 70% over the last 15years. About 4.66% PA. So given average CPI rises it is slightly above average.
Now in this time I have risen up through the food chain to a lower management position, so adding in the promotions, it is probably a less then average increase.

The thing to consider here is that rosters are shorter than 15 years ago. I am working less than before but still making the same money. This is the cost factor for the mines now and what I guess a lot of this string is about. People still get paid the same as before ( or similar) but work as much as half the time. This means about a 150% increase in salary.
I know I will get shot for my figures on here as some number crunchers will prove them inaccurate.

Ok, so why are they paying the money they do?
It's all about expansion and supply and demand. The big companies are all expanding and need more and more quality workers to perform the tasks. They need to be productive, efficient and safety conscious. Quality personnel, believe it or not are hard to find.
To attract them, the companies keep the salaries high and therefore retain the higher skilled personnel (in most cases).
Additional costs are steadily increasing air travel, higher quality accommodation, increased safety and environmental regulations (which is a good thing), and Taxes.

If Gina thinks the salaries are too high, let's see her offer significantly less than the market and see what happens? Roy Hill will end up a training ground for the other companies where people will stay for 6 months before moving to a higher paying role. Her production will be low, incidents and accident levels high, and then she will really have something to whinge about.

As for the Y2K analogy, I think it is not a good comparison. These guys took advantage of a spike in technology. The smart ones are still kicking, the others are not, It's survival of the fittest, and maybe the biggest. you gotta do what you have to do to attract good personnel.


By the way, the N.E this morning was nice on the estuary. Bit gusty bit still nice to get out for a kite.



Gina can rant and rave all she wants about costs, but that is the way it is.

worrier said...

Fair points raised there Simsat.

blah blah,..

I just think Gina is a bit of a goose although a very rich Goose who should know better than to make stupid statements to the media.
That is strictly the domain of the breezers like me
W

???
I heard what she said and I thought it was mostly stating the obvious which is ,.. the Australian mining industry has to remain competitive if it wants to continue growing.
When all this fracas started I thought I must have missed something so I payed more attention to it when it was replayed on various news reports a number of times.
All she actually said was, what we are up against regarding our competition in the mining industry is, amongst other things, some of them are paying their workforce $2 per day. (in Africa).
We are not in Africa and in no way was she suggesting $2.00 a day wages for our workforce.

I wasn't surprised when the media and some people here immediately interpreted this the way they have, that is that Gina wants to pay $2 a day for workers here.

I was very disappointed but not entirely surprised to see our esteemed leader Julia pick up the very same interpretation and start a public sledging on prime time TV.
You would really expect a prime minister of our country to have better abilities in comprehension of a statement than has been displayed here.

No wonder this government is such a serial offender in arriving at completely wrong conclusions in simple matters,.. from pink batts,.. 58% mining taxes,.. carbon taxes,.. live cattle exports,.. and almost everything in between.

My version of 101 - (U have been warned[}:)][}:)])
Cheers
AP

The point of the complaint she made was to try to move the ball on to a playing field of her making. Just as the Fortescue Metals controller A.Forrest aka Twiggy does.
They are basically attacking the hand that feeds them.

What is the result in this thread... the dominant theme in the thread is an argument for and against those who work in the industry. The people who work in the mines get paid what they get offered and the market warrants - warts and all, that is that. U might think it is too much, U might think it is deserved - discussing this is a side show trying to bias public opinion.

These individuals are opportunist of their moment. Just as A.Bond & P.Skase where in their time. The process is to take a mighty plunge on an existing successful business model and leverage the process to the hilt and hey on paper at least you can become the richest women in the world in 12 months or like Twiggy Forrest be worth $6 billion at least around the beginning of this year - $3.2 billion now.

But what is it based on... a constant supply of honey - ever expanding market and a cost structure totally reliant on the belief you operate in this mental vacuum with little influence of external factors... until reality shakes...

Fact - the commodity - iron ore - as little as 10 years ago USD $20 a ton it went over $110 per ton in recent months and is currently around $86 per ton - and at what price do U think the business models of our super rich whingers was done on??

Supply and demand - well if you expand to the point that you over supply you shoot yourself in the foot - if ore prices stay as they are for another 6-8 months Fortescue Metals is likely to have been taken over - supply is outstripping demand by 8 to 10% before the massive new expansions.

Who is to blame the hand that feeds them or the over extension and gambling style nature of the business models which from a reasonable base have been over expanded on borrowed money...

Sure our iron ore is a very high grade 60% (I think) - it has been there for 1000's of years so what if it has to stay there for another 50+ years.
Think Skase, think Bond, think addicted gambler - so next time you hear them trumpet - think total self interest - you can still go bankrupt in Africa on a bad business model.

I like pweedas summary.

A few relevant points
1. Gina probably should have got someone to proof read that speech. The comment about miners in Africa getting paid $2 a day was always going to be inflammatory. It doesn't help her get her point across and allows all sorts of people to gain some cheap political shots. Hence I think if she has any public relations advisors they're pretty crap.
2. While I'm not disputing that it takes some expertise and a lot of investment to mine iron ore, if she doesn't do it someone else will. It's not like it's going to rot if we don't dig it out quickly. The price may rise and fall but the ore will still be there.
3. Again not disputing that Gina is very canny about mining and probably works damn hard, but her wealth hinges on the fact that her dad had the luck and timing to arrange a flight over the Pilbara looking for likely signs of a giant ore deposit, was lucky enough to find it, and then had to knowledge to stake a claim. The Hangcocks didn't CREATE that ore deposit, and if he hadn't found it, someone else would have in time.
4. They don't OWN the ore, or the LAND, both are owned by the commonwealth and mined under leasehold agreements. For Australia - we can only dig it up once and the government should be extracting the best possible price they can - but factor in not just royalties received but jobs created / infrastructure built etc as part of the price.