The blazing January sun is still below the yardarm as a lingerie-clad barmaid serves $11.50 pints of icy Great Northern lager to three fly in, fly out workers at the Redcliffe Tavern, a nondescript bar near Perth airport.

Shifting their gaze from the $20 notes tucked into various lacy straps, the FIFO workers turn their attention to another burning issue that has, until recently, been out of mind for more than three decades: unions in Western Australia’s Pilbara.