{"id":885346,"date":"2026-09-09T06:26:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T06:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/885346\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T06:26:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T06:26:21","slug":"industrial-action-set-to-strike-heart-of-was-energy-grid-as-premier-coal-miners-back-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/885346\/","title":{"rendered":"Industrial action set to strike heart of WA’s energy grid as Premier Coal miners back strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Industrial action is set to hit the heart of Western Australia’s power grid after talks between unionised staff and management at one of the state’s struggling coal mines broke down.<\/p>\n

Premier Coal is the main supplier to state-owned power provider Synergy’s Muja and Collie power plants, 200km south of Perth.<\/p>\n

The mine is owned by Yancoal Australia, which is controlled by Chinese state-backed miner Yankuang Energy Group.<\/p>\n

Workers are pushing for better pay and clarity on their redundancies as part of their final enterprise agreement, with WA’s state-owned coal power plants set to be shuttered by 2030.<\/p>\n

Final talks on Wednesday morning failed to reach a resolution, setting the scene for strike action, according to Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) state secretary Steve McCartney.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Steve McCartney has been in negotiations with Premier Coal. (ABC News: Courtney Withers\u00a0)<\/p>\n

“The arrogance of that company \u2014 they just treat [the workers] with contempt,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They weren’t listening to anything.”<\/p>\n

Mr McCartney said WA energy consumers should brace for grid disruption if the dispute leads to protracted industrial action.<\/p>\n

The ABC has contacted Yancoal Australia for comment.<\/p>\n

Strike at the heart of energy grid<\/p>\n

The state government said any strike action would not affect power supplies, as Synergy had already stockpiled coal.<\/p>\n

The industrial unrest follows confirmation taxpayers would help cover costs of the rehabilitation at the mine, with the government pushing Premier Coal to merge with Indian-owned competitor Griffin Coal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“What Premier Coal is doing is acting like a hedge fund and trying to work out how much money they can milk out of the government without spending their own; that’s a disgrace,” Mr McCartney said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Workers recently picketed at the state parliament, calling for more clarity around the transition away from coal. (ABC News: Nic Perpitch)<\/p>\n

He said workers will meet over the next two days to discuss potential dates and lengths for the stop-work action, with support for stoppages longer than 12 hours.<\/p>\n

“[Workers] need to make a solid decision so that the company understand we aren’t going to tolerate getting pushed around,” he said.<\/p>\n

More than 90 per cent of the workforce at Premier Coal are unionised.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of Mining and Energy Union (MEU) and AMWU workers backed a strike in a recent ballot.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A seam of coal at Premier Coal’s Collie mine (ABC South West: Anthony Pancia)<\/p>\n

Clarity on the end of coal<\/p>\n

The protection against future reductions to workers’ redundancy payments are a central sticking point in the negotiations.<\/p>\n

MEU state secretary Greg Busson said workers were growing increasingly anxious about the 2030 deadline, and wanted clarity as the company winds down operations.<\/p>\n

“[Workers] just want certainty about what their last couple of years at Premier Coal are going to look like,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/p>\n

Greg Busson says workers are increasingly anxious about the 2030 deadline for shuttering state-owned coal power plants. (ABC News: Daniel Mercer)<\/p>\n

In April, Premier Coal announced the loss of between 70 and 100 jobs at its mine site near Collie<\/a>, citing slowing demand for coal-fired power.<\/p>\n

Shadow Energy Minister Steve Thomas said workers at the state-owned power stations were receiving better support than the mine workers.<\/p>\n

“There is a quiet desperation creeping into the coalfields at Collie as the Labor government closes their industry down, and this industrial action is just the next step,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There is no certainty for these workers, and it is no wonder that they are pushing for a better deal in the final three years of their job tenure.”<\/p>\n

“The government doesn’t need to end coal by the end of 2029, and it shouldn’t shaft non-Synergy workers in the process.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Premier Coal has been negotiating with workers. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n

A Cook government spokesperson said workers had a right to bargain for wages, and it had supported the Collie transition with more than $700 million in funding.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the funds included $3.2 million to support Premier Coal workers and contractors impacted by the recent shutdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Industrial action is set to hit the heart of Western Australia’s power grid after talks between unionised staff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[371173,64,63,99,116456,272530,455143,455144,455145,455148,301191,41844,455149,45,455147,455146],"class_list":["post-885346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-amwu","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-coal-fired-power","tag-coal-mining-wa","tag-collie-coal-mine","tag-collie-strike","tag-meu","tag-muja-power-station","tag-premier-coal","tag-south-west-news","tag-wa-electricity-grid","tag-wa-news","tag-wa-power-generaion","tag-wa-power-supply"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}