Glass
6th September 2012, 11:04 PM
So it seems after 5 years of BS about the impact of the GFC on Australia that the effects are really starting to bite.
BHP announced this week that it will shelve plans to expand some mines and to build a new section of port at Port Hedland in Western Australia. This has resulted in several hundred engineers being sacked this week. Thats more than 200 engineers who were working or contracted with several firms working with BHP on these expansion projects. I think an old aquaintance might be looking for yet another job since the GFC began.
Fortesque Mining which is run by Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest has just held a number of stop work meetings across the pilbara to inform the work force of the layoffs they will be implementing as a result of the GFC.
FMG halts Pilbara operations for jobs talk
http://l.yimg.com/ea/img/-/120907/a_280711busfmg10_184ibri-184ibuj.jpg
UPDATE 12.40pm Fortescue Metals Group workers at its Pilbara operations may be told today who will keep their jobs, with the company holding all-staff meetings to announce the latest wave of layoffs.
WestBusiness understands Fortescue has taken the unusual step of temporarily stopping work at Cloudbreak, the miner's most expensive operation, and other Pilbara operations to allow managers to address the workforce as a group.
Fortescue yesterday would not confirm the meetings but this morning, FMG chief executive Nev Power addressed workers at the Solomon hub.
The ABC reported that several hundred contractors at the Solomon site had already been sacked.
One contractor has told the national broadcaster that staff were called in earlier this week and told to check a list of names pinned to the wall.
"The people whose names were on there were told they'd been sacked," the contractor told the ABC
"Some people were crying, it was pretty awful."
Fortescue yesterday dismissed market talk that "Fortescue is closing Cloudbreak (as) absolutely incorrect", and reiterated that it would merely slow the rate of overburden removal and move to the use of existing ore stockpiles until iron ore prices recovered.
Earlier in the week Fortescue chief financial officer Steve Pearce said that cash costs at Cloudbreak were estimated at $50 a tonne.
Sources say the mine is unprofitable if spot prices fall to $US80/t. Prices in China were $US86.70/t yesterday.
This week's Fortescue jobs cull also extended deep into management ranks. As revealed by WestBusiness yesterday, long-term executives recruited by founder and chairman Andrew Forrest found they were not immune, with joint company secretary and investor relations head Rod Campbell and government relations executive Julian Tapp among the departing.
In addition, Fortescue slashed the ranks of its senior legal team, making group legal manager Andrew Barclay and senior legal counsel Ann Marie Lowry redundant.
Both had been with the company more than five years.
More recent senior executive appointments, including director of external affairs Deidre Willmott and chief information officer Vito Forte, have survived the cull.
Mr Forte's department at the Fortescue head office was one of the worst hit, sources say, with more than a third of the IT division axed.
One former Fortescue employee said even the human resources department appeared to have been caught short by the sudden and savage cuts, with some staff not being given a formal letter terminating their employment before being escorted from the building.
Another worker told of being pulled out of a meeting to be told by his line managers he was being made redundant.
As his superiors read from a prepared script, his company mobile was cut off, access to his computer and login revoked and he was then given only a short period to collect his belongings before being escorted to the lifts.
FMG shares recovered this morning in early trade as the resources sector lead th emarket higher.
At 11.10am, FMG was up 5.6 per cent, 16.50 cents, to $3.135.
Link to the West Australian (http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/14779773/fmg-halts-pilbara-operations-for-jobs-talk/)
2 weeks ago, the news was still full of the "China's demand will see us through" mantra although it had morphed into "China's slow down will have little impact." Maybe 1000 jobs lost this week alone. No biggie.
Then of course we have Gina who isn't brave enough to come out and say the market is tanking. Instead she wants workers to work for free and subsidize her business for her. Now who wouldn't want that?
In the mean time companies are still going to the wall. In my home town of Perth we have had a major builder go under about a week ago and on Monday there was a large freight company that also went under.
Things are picking up steam here. Wondering how bad things will get. Are we going to go spanish style? Probably.
BHP announced this week that it will shelve plans to expand some mines and to build a new section of port at Port Hedland in Western Australia. This has resulted in several hundred engineers being sacked this week. Thats more than 200 engineers who were working or contracted with several firms working with BHP on these expansion projects. I think an old aquaintance might be looking for yet another job since the GFC began.
Fortesque Mining which is run by Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest has just held a number of stop work meetings across the pilbara to inform the work force of the layoffs they will be implementing as a result of the GFC.
FMG halts Pilbara operations for jobs talk
http://l.yimg.com/ea/img/-/120907/a_280711busfmg10_184ibri-184ibuj.jpg
UPDATE 12.40pm Fortescue Metals Group workers at its Pilbara operations may be told today who will keep their jobs, with the company holding all-staff meetings to announce the latest wave of layoffs.
WestBusiness understands Fortescue has taken the unusual step of temporarily stopping work at Cloudbreak, the miner's most expensive operation, and other Pilbara operations to allow managers to address the workforce as a group.
Fortescue yesterday would not confirm the meetings but this morning, FMG chief executive Nev Power addressed workers at the Solomon hub.
The ABC reported that several hundred contractors at the Solomon site had already been sacked.
One contractor has told the national broadcaster that staff were called in earlier this week and told to check a list of names pinned to the wall.
"The people whose names were on there were told they'd been sacked," the contractor told the ABC
"Some people were crying, it was pretty awful."
Fortescue yesterday dismissed market talk that "Fortescue is closing Cloudbreak (as) absolutely incorrect", and reiterated that it would merely slow the rate of overburden removal and move to the use of existing ore stockpiles until iron ore prices recovered.
Earlier in the week Fortescue chief financial officer Steve Pearce said that cash costs at Cloudbreak were estimated at $50 a tonne.
Sources say the mine is unprofitable if spot prices fall to $US80/t. Prices in China were $US86.70/t yesterday.
This week's Fortescue jobs cull also extended deep into management ranks. As revealed by WestBusiness yesterday, long-term executives recruited by founder and chairman Andrew Forrest found they were not immune, with joint company secretary and investor relations head Rod Campbell and government relations executive Julian Tapp among the departing.
In addition, Fortescue slashed the ranks of its senior legal team, making group legal manager Andrew Barclay and senior legal counsel Ann Marie Lowry redundant.
Both had been with the company more than five years.
More recent senior executive appointments, including director of external affairs Deidre Willmott and chief information officer Vito Forte, have survived the cull.
Mr Forte's department at the Fortescue head office was one of the worst hit, sources say, with more than a third of the IT division axed.
One former Fortescue employee said even the human resources department appeared to have been caught short by the sudden and savage cuts, with some staff not being given a formal letter terminating their employment before being escorted from the building.
Another worker told of being pulled out of a meeting to be told by his line managers he was being made redundant.
As his superiors read from a prepared script, his company mobile was cut off, access to his computer and login revoked and he was then given only a short period to collect his belongings before being escorted to the lifts.
FMG shares recovered this morning in early trade as the resources sector lead th emarket higher.
At 11.10am, FMG was up 5.6 per cent, 16.50 cents, to $3.135.
Link to the West Australian (http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/14779773/fmg-halts-pilbara-operations-for-jobs-talk/)
2 weeks ago, the news was still full of the "China's demand will see us through" mantra although it had morphed into "China's slow down will have little impact." Maybe 1000 jobs lost this week alone. No biggie.
Then of course we have Gina who isn't brave enough to come out and say the market is tanking. Instead she wants workers to work for free and subsidize her business for her. Now who wouldn't want that?
In the mean time companies are still going to the wall. In my home town of Perth we have had a major builder go under about a week ago and on Monday there was a large freight company that also went under.
Things are picking up steam here. Wondering how bad things will get. Are we going to go spanish style? Probably.