ABSTRACT
This chapter divides into five sections. First, it provides an orientation to the coal industry, outlining in macroterms, the principal features of the Australian coal industry. Then, describes the forces which we contend are impacting upon employment relations in the Australian coal industry. Then, characterizes both state and employer responses to these forces, arguing that market structures and the monopsonistic power of buyers, ensure that simple cost-cutting is a self defeating strategy in the coal industry. Then, considers the strategies of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) to counter state and employer initiatives in the coal industry. Finally, it concludes by arguing that the experience of the Australian coal industry can assist in improving aspects of contemporary globalization debates. There are three basic means of selling coal in the international market: long term contracts; by tender; and by selling coal on the spot market.
