Workers at Fiji's only gold mine at Vatukoula have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action.
In the Ministry of Labour-supervised poll, 587 voted in favour of a strike and 28 against while six votes were invalid.
The strike mandate is to press the Emperor Gold Mining Company to negotiate on the union's log of claims which includes an 18-percent cost of living increase covering the last six years.
The other grievance is the redundancy of more than 120 miners even though arbitration talks are still under way.
