A greenfield in black coal

Abstract

Studies the introduction of individualised employment relations at the Bengalla Open Cut mining operation in the Hunter Valley coalfields of New South Wales, Australia. Describes and explains the “greenfield” strategy of the managing owner of the mine, the US multinational, the Peabody Group, and the reaction and counter‐strategy of the miners’ union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). Argues that management’s greenfield strategy has provided some immediate benefits to the employer and rendered the CFMEU almost powerless to develop a delegate structure at the mine and bargain collectively with management. Yet the peculiar type of individualism, its justification and the CFMEU’s efforts to maintain a presence at the mine indicate that individualised employment relations may only be a transient phenomenon at the Bengalla mine.

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