“The maingate is ready to fall in,” Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union district vice-president Graham White told ILN.
The union was notified on Wednesday “the longwall was in trouble” as the strata problems started to occur.
“They couldn’t afford us to stop a panel because it’s got a 45-metre problem area,” White said.
“So for us to do that we are going to have to drop our action during that period.”
Negotiations are underway to restart full shifts at the mine.
Industrial action started up again on June 4, consisting of 3-5 hour stoppages per shift.
The stoppages followed a move by Xstrata to terminate the existing enterprise agreement.
Many months of negotiations have failed to make progress on a new EA.
Industrial action at Tahmoor started back in October and has also involved limiting the output of the wash plant to no more than 200 tonnes per hour, directly hitting the operation’s bottom line.
ILN is seeking comment from Xstrata.
