60 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
60 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
The **Nymboida Mine Work-In** was an episode of [workers'
|
|
control](Workers'_Self-Management "wikilink") in Nymboida, New South
|
|
Wales, [Australia](Commonwealth_of_Australia "wikilink") from [1975 to
|
|
1979](Timeline_of_Libertarian_Socialism_in_Oceania "wikilink").
|
|
|
|
## Background
|
|
|
|
On the 7th of February, 1975, Nymboida Collieries announced the closure
|
|
of its small mine in northern coastal New South Wales because it was
|
|
insufficiently profitable, and issued dismissal notices to the thirty
|
|
workers, whose years of service ranged from ten to twenty-six years. The
|
|
company also intimated it would not pay the workers some $70,000 they
|
|
were owed in severance pay, annual leave, and other entitlements. The
|
|
miners were all union members, and met and collectively agreed to
|
|
perform a work-in.\[1\]
|
|
|
|
## Workers' Control
|
|
|
|
In exchange for not paying owed wages and benefits, Nymboida Collieries
|
|
agreed to hand ownership of the mine over to the workers after a few
|
|
weeks. Productivity immediately increased from 500 tons of coal a week
|
|
to 700 tons of coal a week (or a 40% increase in production\!) despite
|
|
no improvements to machinery or the size of the labour force. This was
|
|
due to increased motivation, less skipping of work and a more
|
|
efficiently organized mine.\[2\]
|
|
|
|
## End
|
|
|
|
Workers' Control at Nymboida Mine ended as the local power station
|
|
supplying the mine with electricity was closed down.\[3\]
|
|
|
|
## See Also
|
|
|
|
- [Work-In](Work-In "wikilink")
|
|
- [Harco Work-In](Harco_Work-In "wikilink")
|
|
- [Clutha Development Mine
|
|
Work-In](Clutha_Development_Mine_Work-In "wikilink")
|
|
- [Sydney Opera House Work-In](Sydney_Opera_House_Work-In "wikilink")
|
|
- [Whyalla Glove Factory
|
|
Work-In](Whyalla_Glove_Factory_Work-In "wikilink")
|
|
- [Wyong Plaza Work-In](Wyong_Plaza_Work-In "wikilink")
|
|
- [Coal Cliff Work-In](Coal_Cliff_Work-In "wikilink")
|
|
- [Sanyo Television Factory
|
|
Work-In](Sanyo_Television_Factory_Work-In "wikilink")
|
|
- [Union Carbide Work-In](Union_Carbide_Work-In "wikilink")
|
|
- [Department of Social Security
|
|
Work-In](Department_of_Social_Security_Work-In "wikilink")
|
|
|
|
## References
|
|
|
|
<references />
|
|
|
|
1. [Immanuel Ness](Immanuel_Ness "wikilink") (2014) [New Forms of
|
|
Worker Organization: The Syndicalist and Autonomist Restoration of
|
|
Class Struggle
|
|
Unionism](New_Forms_of_Worker_Organization:_The_Syndicalist_and_Autonomist_Restoration_of_Class_Struggle_Unionism "wikilink")
|
|
- Chapter 10: Doing without the boss: Workers' Control Experiments
|
|
in Australia in the 1970s
|
|
2.
|
|
3. |