Industrial Relations in the Privatized Mining Industry

Abstract

This article examines the impact of privatization on industrial relations in the UK coal industry. It focuses on aspects of continuity and change in the transition to privatization, assessing how far the processes of trade union exclusion and decollectivization, begun by British Coal, have been extended or modified in the first year of private operation. The paper argues that the segmentation of trade union interests has been exacerbated in a variety of ways, not least by the fragmentation of the industry under different forms of ownership and control. It concludes that, while the likelihood of industrial action in the smaller companies is remote, RJB Mining is more vulnerable to sanctions than was its predecessor. However, it remains debatable to what extent future cost‐cutting and closures might precipitate such action, given the extent of decollectivization that has occurred.