</image> <label>Performers</label> <label>Date</label> <label>Location</label> </infobox>The Nymboida Mine Work-In was an episode of workers' control in Nymboida, New South Wales, Australia from 1975 to 1979.
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.[1]
End
Workers' Control at Nymboida Mine ended as the local power station supplying the mine with electricity was closed down.[1]
See Also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Immanuel Ness (2014) New Forms of Worker Organization: The Syndicalist and Autonomist Restoration of Class Struggle Unionism - Chapter 10: Doing without the boss: Workers' Control Experiments in Australia in the 1970s