IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v35y2014i1p185-200.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A battle between titans? Rio Tinto and union recognition in Australia’s iron ore industry

Author

Listed:
  • Bradon Ellem

Abstract

In 2010, under pressure from newly unionised rail workers, the multinational mining company Rio Tinto agreed to bargain collectively with a union for the first time in its Australian iron ore operations since 1993. This re-unionisation of part of Rio Tinto was, for unionists, an impressive feat but, in itself, the campaign was familiar enough. What makes this empirically significant is the ‘titanic’ nature of the struggle in this vital sector. Its wider significance lies in a contribution to debate about ‘successful’ campaigns and in highlighting the importance of both national regulation and local context to these outcomes. More broadly still, this successful campaign poses questions about how we relate such episodes to ongoing failures elsewhere.

Suggested Citation

  • Bradon Ellem, 2014. "A battle between titans? Rio Tinto and union recognition in Australia’s iron ore industry," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 35(1), pages 185-200, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:35:y:2014:i:1:p:185-200
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X12472243
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X12472243
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X12472243?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:35:y:2014:i:1:p:185-200. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.