Globalization and Confrontation: The Transformation of the Australian Coal Industry

The Australian coal industry serves as a vivid illustration of the impact of globalization on workplace organization and workplace industrial relations. In this contribution we outline the changes and developments, from the organization of production through to the product market, that are impacting on workplace organization and industrial relations of the Australian coal industry. In particular the authors highlight the attempts and strategies of management to increase productivity, to realize functional and numeric flexibilities in the deployment of labour and to deregulate employment relations. Simultaneously, trade unions are faced with institutional, legal and global competitive pressures to conform to the flexibility strategies of managers. The result has been persistent and sporadic outbreaks of industrial disputation in the midst of the erosion of employment conditions and a shift towards greater managerial control of the labour process. The forces identified as globalization are systematically transforming workplace organization and impacting on the strategies of coal mine managers and trade unions.