Workers at BHP's Australia mines will strike for seven days starting next week. The workers voted down a contract offer for the second time this week. Workers have been staging rolling work stoppages at other mines for the past year over disputes in work schedules. The company said that the strike would hurt everyone involved. The workers say that the strike is necessary to push the company to change their contract offer.
See "Workers to strike at BHP Billiton Australia coal mines", Reuters, May 17, 2012