Vatukoula the story of a company town
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The 300 plus miners on strike in Fiji -for their 19th year- should hear soon from Fiji's interim government whether they will be compensated by the state for their two decades out of work, during which time the mine was closed, sold, and re-opened under another company, at which point none of the striking miners were re-hired. In recent times, gold production and sales have surged in Vatukoula while the former Emperor Gold employees wait for their grievances to be redressed. Vatukoula has been an important location in Fiji's labour history, and a centre of struggle against exploitation by multinational companies.
Gold was first discovered in the area by an Australian prospector in 1932, and the and the establishment of a mine by an Australian mining company, Emperor Gold Mining, followed soon after. Still a British colony, Emperor Gold practised what the Fiji Times has labeled “colonial-style mine management”. In a thesis submitted to the The University of Vermont, Mary Ackley outlines what this means:
The mining company was initially able to secure an inexpensive migrant labor supply partially because of a British colonial protectionist policy that erroneously portrayed a comfortable rural Fijian subsistence economy, and thus allowed for the rationalization of low wages and temporary employment.
Ackley goes on to write that with the mining company owning all the land and housing, and monopolising employment in the area “Vatukoula can truly be considered a company town.”
For decades Emperor Gold called the shots in Vatukoula, but but the workers began to get organised in 1960 when the company signed with the Fiji Mine Worker's Union its first comprehensive agreement. In February 1977 the miners walked off the job, causing the EGM board of directors to order the closure of the mine. That dispute was resolved with the intervention of the Ministry of Labour, but when miners again walked off the job in 1991 EGM followed through with its threat. 19 years later its time for a resolution.
