ABOUT 400 Hydro Kurri Kurri workers massed outside the smelter today to protest against the state government’s handling of their power contract.
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The rally, organised by the Australian Workers Union, featured speeches from the union’s Newcastle secretary Richard Downie, smelter boss Harald Bentzen and Cessnock MP Kerry Hickey, who is supporting the smelter against his own government.
The Norwegian-owned smelter hit the headlines recently when the government told Hydro’s power supplier, the state-owned Delta Electricity, not to sign a 10-year contract extension from 2017.
At the same time, another government-owned power company, Macquarie Generation, was allowed to sign a similar long-term extension with the Rio Tinto-managed Tomago Aluminium smelter.
AWU secretary Richard Downie said the Delta board had agreed to the contract, only for the government to intervene at the last minute.
Electricity supply contracts held by Delta and MacGen are part of the government’s power privatisation plans and Mr Downie said it seemed as though the government believed it would get more money for the Delta contracts if it allowed a new owner to cut a new higher-priced deal with Hydro.
Mr Downie said AWU national secretary Paul Howes was meeting treasurer Eric Roozendaal over the issue next week but if that meeting failed to bear fruit the union would hold a public rally in Kurri.
