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The Co-Development of Work and Place in a Company Town: a Case Study of Newman, Western Australia

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The Co-Development of Work and Place in a Company Town: a Case Study of Newman, Western Australia The Co-development of Work and Place in a Company Town: A Case Study of Newman, Western Australia Tom Barratt B.Ec.(Hons), LLB This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The University of Western Australia Business School Management and Organisations; Employment Relations 2017 Thesis Declaration I, Tom Barratt, certify that: This thesis has been substantially accomplished during enrolment in the degree. This thesis does not contain material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in my name, in any university or other tertiary institution. No part of this work will, in the future, be used in a submission in my name, for any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution without the prior approval of The University of Western Australia and where applicable, any partner institution responsible for the joint-award of this degree. This thesis does not contain any material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. The work(s) are not in any way a violation or infringement of any copyright, trademark, patent, or other rights whatsoever of any person. The research involving human data reported in this thesis was assessed and approved by The University of Western Australia Human Research Ethics Committee Approval #: RA/4/1/5400. The work described in this thesis was funded by an Australian Postgraduate Award and UWA ‘top-up’ scholarships. This thesis does not contain work that I have published, nor work under review for publication. Signature: Date: 3/2/2017 2 Abstract This thesis investigates the co-development of work and place in the Pilbara mining town of Newman, Western Australia. In doing so, it considers how the erosion of collective agency has occurred in a particular place though changes in work, but also the re-making of place in accordance with neoliberalism by capital, the state and a section of the workforce. The town was originally co-constructed by capital and the state to afford management prerogative over both production and social reproduction. However workers, through trade unionism, were able to influence how and on what terms work was done as well as how life was lived in the town, effectively creating a 'union place'. In the 1990s capital successfully de-unionised the workforce and reconstituted the employment relationship. This occurred both at the mine sites and in the town itself, and has resulted in significant changes in work regimes and place making in the town. I show that changes in employment relations that have marginalised unions though individualising and fragmenting the workforce were effective due to changes both at work as well as in how the place was understood, replacing collective notions of community solidarity with an individualistic and marketised mindset. Informed by the spatio-temporal development of this particular place I apply a qualitative case study methodology to describe how work is organised and experienced in Newman, as well as how work and place have interacted to remake Newman's local labour market. 3 Contents Thesis Declaration ......................................................................................................... 2 Abstract ......................................................................................................................... 3 List of Figures ................................................................................................................ 6 List of Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... 6 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 7 Chapter One: Introduction ............................................................................................ 9 1.1 Theoretical Contribution ................................................................................... 13 1.2 Methodology ..................................................................................................... 15 1.3 Newman As A Case Study ................................................................................. 16 1.4 Outline of the Thesis ......................................................................................... 19 Chapter Two: Theorising Geography, Workers and Economic Space ........................ 22 2.1 Workers and Economic Space ........................................................................... 23 2.2 Geographical Concepts ..................................................................................... 33 2.3 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 37 Chapter Three: The Creation and Contestation of Place in Company and Mining Towns .......................................................................................................................... 39 3.1 Definition and Role ........................................................................................... 40 3.2 The Role of the State ......................................................................................... 42 3.3 Physical and Social Engineering ........................................................................ 43 3.4 Contestation over Spatial Practice .................................................................... 46 3.5 Migration and Mobility ..................................................................................... 49 3.6 Contemporary ‘Company Towns’ ..................................................................... 50 3.7 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 52 Chapter Four: The Production of Place Over Time: Newman in Context ................... 54 4.1 The Pilbara Pre-Mining and the Nascent Iron Ore Industry ............................. 55 4.2 Company Town and Union Place (1969-1981) ................................................. 57 4.3 Newman and Normalisation 1981-1999 ........................................................... 61 4.4 The BHPB-Union Dispute and Market Based Local Labour Market (1999- present) ................................................................................................................... 65 4.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 70 4 Chapter Five: Work In Newman’s Local Labour Market ............................................. 72 5.1 Contextual Factors Shaping Work ..................................................................... 72 5.2 Employment Relations ...................................................................................... 76 5.3 Collective Understandings of Work .................................................................. 85 5.4 Job Security ....................................................................................................... 91 5.5 Mobile Workers and their Interaction with Place ............................................ 97 5.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 99 Chapter Six: Social Reproduction and Place within Newman’s Remade Local Labour Market ....................................................................................................................... 101 6.1 The De-Prioritisation of Social Reproduction.................................................. 101 6.2 Sense of Place .................................................................................................. 109 6.3 Place making in Newman ................................................................................ 118 6.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 122 Chapter 7 – Conclusion ............................................................................................. 124 Appendix One: Methodology .................................................................................... 131 Appx.1 Theoretical Foundations of Methodology ................................................ 131 Appx.2 Research Design ........................................................................................ 133 Appx.3 Fieldwork and Data Collection .................................................................. 136 Appx.4 Data Set ..................................................................................................... 137 Appx.5 Data Analysis ............................................................................................. 138 Appx.6 Ethics ......................................................................................................... 139 Appx.7 Sample Interview Questions ..................................................................... 140 Reference List ............................................................................................................ 143 5 List of Figures Figure 1: The town of Newman from Radio Hill…………………………………………………………16 Figure 2: Photos reflecting the development of housing in Newman ……………………….17 Figure 3: Map of BHBP’s Western Australian Iron Ore Operations…………………………….18 Figure 4: FIFO Accommodation in a caravan park in Newman………………………………….81 Figure 5: Table of BHPB Rosters and Shift Lengths……………………………………………………..85 List of Abbreviations BHPB BHP Billiton Pty Ltd FIFO Fly-In
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