The most ridiculous was a walk-out at an iron ore mine over the failure of management to provide rotary back-scrubbers in the showers at a minesite.
A more expensive tool-downing exercise was when a member of management shut down a power plant to stop it exploding rather than wait for an authorised union member to do the job – even though he was half-a-day away and lives were at risk.
Hopefully, we are not going to see a repeat of that sort of industrial action but even a casual observer must have noticed the change in the industrial relations temperature across the country.
In the coal world, we have seen the first ripple on the IR pond with troubles at the mines operated by BMA, with unions wanting more say in rostering, fewer fly-in-fly-out workers, and something called a more “family friendly” workplace, which translates as fewer night shifts.
Industrial action has not reached the iron ore world of WA – yet – but it might not be far away thanks to a significant legal win for unions last week, when an appeals court invalidated non-union contracts preferred by Rio Tinto. Union leaders said BHP Billiton was the next target on their campaign to re-unionise the iron ore mines of the Pilbara.
Interestingly, Australia is not alone when it comes to a re-energised union movement, with industrial action also ramping up in Chile and South Africa, two of the world’s other big mining countries.
Australia, however, is where The Hog prefers to focus because it is at the centre of the resources boom and it has the most to lose by rising costs and the related decline in productivity, a process which is worrying the boffins at the Reserve Bank.
Right now, and perhaps for another couple of golden years, not many Aussies in the mining world are going to worry about productivity issues such as the number of tonnes shifted per worker in a mine.
Prices for commodities have never been better and now, so the thinking goes, is time to enjoy the fruits of the boom.
But, nagging away in the back of The Hogs brain is a memory of what it was like in the 60s, with tunes by Jimi Hendrix mixing with memories of booms that came and went and of mining companies which were priced out of business because they did not keep costs under control.
This time around is shaping as something slightly different, with the mining sector starting to act like a cuckoo in the Australian nest.
What’s happening is that sky-high prices for products such as coal and iron ore, plus a more union-friendly Australian government, has created the perfect climate for mine workers to demand a bigger slice of the pie.
Said quickly and that might even seem to be a fair thing. After all mining companies and their shareholders have never had it better, so why not spread the winnings around?
The problem, and this is one which is going to cause great dislocation in the Australian economy, is that a revitalised union movement and a new IR system administered by Fair Work Australia will lead to attempts to pass wage victories in the mines on to workers in other industries.
The mines can afford to pay high wages, and they are.
Other industries, especially manufacturing, already hammered flat by an exchange rate at $US1.10 and rising interest rates, cannot compete with mine rates.
Already today the average pay rate in the iron ore industry is $150,000 per worker. Imagine what would happen to the southeast manufacturing heartland of Australia if that cost was transferred – economic devastation.
It is fear of transferring wage wins in the mines of WA and Queensland via pattern bargaining, and other negotiating techniques, which has employers in the southeast quivering in their pinstripe suits, with one even referring last week to the potential for a national economic “Armageddon”
That is probably overstating the situation, but just as no one predicted an exchange rate of $US1.10, or coal and iron ore prices to stay high for so long, so too could the next big surprise be a trip back to those crazy 60s of Hendrix and wildcat strikes – the seeds have certainly been sown for just that.
