What sparked the train driver’s strike that has hit the Hunter Valley coalfields in New South Wales is a secondary issue to the main game, as is the response of their employer, Aurizon, which is reported to have locked 200 of the striking drivers out of the workplace.

The big issue is the 12,000 coal workers who have lost their jobs over the past two years, and the certainty that more will face the sack if mining companies cannot get their coal to customers.

So far, no-one representing the rail union or the rail company seems to understand that their combined action of shutting down the transport route between mines and port could be the last straw for some mine owners struggling with low coal prices and the threat of lower prices in the future.

If that threat of lower coal prices sounds like an idle thought-bubble from The Hog it might be worth both sides in the rail dispute taking a look at what is happening in Japan where coal demand is likely to take a mighty tumble in the next few months as it restarts the 48 nuclear reactors mothballed since the Fukushima meltdown.

The nuclear restart in Japan, announced yesterday, might seem a long way from the Hunter Valley but all it needs is a little forward thinking to see that the two are connected with the simplest explanation being that more power from nuclear equals less power required from coal, or gas for that matter.

Train drivers, who reckon they are immune from what happens to the cargo they haul, might even care to take a look deeper into the future to see that what they are doing today might even be a factor in costing them their jobs as they commit the classic blooper of pricing themselves out of the market.

What is meant by that comment is that automation of trains has shifted from the concept phase into reality as companies seek ways to bypass the weak links in their business.

At some point it is even possible there will be automated ships. If that sounds absurd then you are guilty once again of not looking at what is happening overseas where at least one major shipping-systems design company is already working on a plan to replace ship crews with computers.

Before getting to the detail about automated ships, a final word on the Hunter Valley rail strike and reciprocal lock-out by management.

As far as can be gauged by an outsider the Aurizon rail driver’s strike is all about a grab for money. The union is chasing a pay rise for its members of up to 25%, when the cash and changed conditions are added together. The company is offering 4% and a cut in working hours from 42 to 40 a week, plus more long-service leave.

The deal offered by Aurizon, is said to lift a train driver’s package to $120,000 a year by the end of the agreement.

The union can dispute the 25% as being incorrect and the company can say that it is being overly generous but from where The Hog sits, he suspects there are roughly 12,000 coal workers who would simply prefer a job.

What no-one in the rail union or at Aurizon seems to grasp is that they are not the main players in the game. They are service providers to the coal mines and right now they are not providing much of a service to an industry that is marginally profitable.

Next step in this stand-off will be interesting. The union is portraying itself as an immoveable object. The company as an irresistible force. If those positions are maintained then the coal industry faces a stalemate and more coal workers will lose their jobs.

Meanwhile, on the horizon, lies the promise of a mining industry with even fewer workers because as unions demand ever-higher rewards companies will continue their search for ways to replace them.

Driverless trains are already more than a concept. They can be used and if the cost of train drivers becomes exorbitant they will be used.

Ships too, despite how daft it might sound, are being re-designed to sail without crews. The leader in that field of research is Rolls-Royce, a company with a name more synonymous with cars than ships.

However, in the Norwegian shipping centre of Alesund the Rolls-Royce Blue Ocean research team has already established a fully-computerised ship handling system that can be controlled from a remote operations centre.

Crewless ships and driverless trains might once have been the stuff of science fiction but the harder the union movement presses for rewards that employers cannot afford the sooner the future will arrive.