The Stockpile Thesis and Industrial Relations at Kambalda

Abstract

Some recent work on industrial relations in the Australian minirtg industry has focused on a close relationship between the incidence of strikes and the stockpiling of the mineral mined. It is argued that when demand for a mineral falls and the stockpile grows, management can afford the disruption to production caused by strikes. Hence management will take action to provoke strikes by introducing changes in work practices it knows will be opposed by unionists. Not only are the unions more likely to be defeated, but the company concerned is also able to reduce the size of its stockpile of ore. A case-study of the nickel-mining centre of Kambalda in Western Australia suggests that the size of the stockpile isfar less relevant when management and unions have a consensual approach to industrial relations. The stockpile is a strategic variable rather than a cause of industrial disputes. Whether the stockpile is manipulated as part of management's strategy will depend on innumerable, interdependent factors, including the organization of social life in a mining town and whether effective co operative relations develop between managers and unions.