(DOWNLOAD) "Cra/Rio Tinto in the 1990S: A Decade of Deunionisation." by Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free

eBook details

Title: Cra/Rio Tinto in the 1990S: A Decade of Deunionisation.
Author : Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History
Release Date : January 01, 2009
Genre: Business & Personal Finance,Books,
Pages : * pages
Size : 311 KB

Description

There is a growing body of evidence that increasing numbers of firms have been actively pursuing deunionisation strategies to enhance managerial hegemony. (1) While this has long been a feature of industrial relations practice in many overseas countries, particularly the United States, its emergence and growth in Australia is a more recent phenomenon. (2) Arguably, Rio Tinto (formerly CRA) has been at the vanguard of this employer push in Australia over the past decade and a half, beginning in 1993 with the deunionisation of its Hamersley Iron (now Rio Tinto Iron Ore) operations in the once staunchly unionised Pilbara region of Western Australia. Prior to these events, during the 1980s, a 'New Right' agenda was adopted by some employers, resulting in the implementation of militant union busting tactics at, amongst other locations, the Mudginberri abattoirs in the Northern Territory, Dollar Sweets confectionary plant in Victoria and at Peko-Wallsend's Robe River mine in the Pilbara. (3) So, while by no means the first company to adopt a militant deunionisation agenda, (4) the breadth and sophistication of the CRA/Rio Tinto case is one with no parallel in the history of Australian industrial relations. The prime motivation for the company to embark on such a radical course of deunionisation, clearly stemmed from the falling commodity prices, particularly for both aluminium and iron ore, which occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As a commodity producer with no opportunities for product differentiation, cost minimisation has always been an imperative for companies such as Rio Tinto. Deunionisation offered an opportunity for work intensification, via changed work practices, and a significant reduction in the size of the workforce, leading not only to improved labour productivity, but crucially, a shift in income share from wages to profits. With this motivation, the opportunity to roll out its deunionisation program presented itself, following changed political and legal environments both in New Zealand and in Australia.