Power workers didn’t need a tech guru to show it’s crunch time

In Germany, it’s accepted that if society wants to transition to renewable energy the cost of that shift should not be concentrated on coal workers and their communities. Picture: Getty Images

The spectacular collapse of AGL’s planned demerger has kicked off a renewed debate about targets and technologies. But the question workers and their communities have is: what about us?

Coal-fired power plant workers don’t need a tech billionaire takeover to tell them the domestic energy industry is undergoing upheaval. They have seen the value of the power they produce plummet as suburbs full of solar panels kick into gear on a sunny day. Many have been told their workplace will close years earlier than expected. Change hasn’t been heralded by a guy in a baseball cap; it’s here.

A decade of policy failure means the change crept up on us while our leaders rejected a national emissions reduction target and failed to shore up the energy grid to deal with the influx of renewables. These issues have been left largely to state government while the federal Coalition was distracted by all the sound and fury emanating from the climate culture war it started.

The question of what happens to workers and communities was neglected. Worse, the question was poisoned by the Coalition’s culture wars. So any suggestion of supporting workers affected by energy transition was shamefully weaponised as anti-coal.

But your feelings about coal don’t change a thing. It doesn’t matter how much you love coal or dab it on your face for photo shoots, the fact is that 10 Australian coal-fired power stations have closed and the only thing yet to be determined for the remaining power stations is their eventual closure date. As we saw most recently at Origin’s Eraring power station in NSW, these dates can be brought forward substantially from their forecasts, blindsiding workers, with the three-year notice requirement the only guarantee.

Now the question of what becomes of existing workforces and the communities reliant on high-emissions industries is known in the global climate change dialogue as a “just transition”.

As the principal union for workers in coal-fired power stations, we have looked at international examples of coal-related industry restructuring and the impact on workers and communities. The gold standard is Germany, where the closure of its unprofitable but huge black coal mining industry across three decades was managed by a tripartite government enterprise. As each mine closed, those workers not ready for retirement were redeployed to neighbouring mines. If there weren’t enough vacancies, voluntary redundancies were offered at the destination mines. Workers short of retirement age could access pensions early.

Germany now is going to the next stage – phasing out its brown coal industry and all coal-fired power generation. To buttress the regional communities that have depended on coal for generations, billions of euros are being invested to create alternative employment and replace the income lost.

In Germany, it’s accepted that if society wants to transition to renewable energy the cost of that shift should not be concentrated on coal workers and their communities. It should be dispersed fairly across society.

Our power station workers have no such reassurance. They wake up to headlines each day about upheaval in their industry and a huge gap in the story about what’s going to happen to them.

Australia’s record of industry restructuring provides little comfort. Our tradition generally has been once you get a redundancy cheque you’re on your own. The consequences of this strategy can be seen in places such as the Appalachian region of the US, where once proud coal communities have been left to descend into poverty and dysfunction.

If workers are facing uncertainty in the highly regulated dom­­estic electricity sector, any change in the export coal market – which remains profitable for now – will be more brutal for workers. BHP is absolving itself of any responsibility by divesting its thermal coal assets such as the Mt Arthur mine in the NSW Hunter Valley. That leaves workers, communities and governments to deal with second and third-tier companies without the wherewithal or intent to deal properly with economic dislocation.

Which means investors pushing fossil fuel divestment are just offering company executives the coward’s way out. By walking away, they leave the social and economic problems of regional communities to smaller companies and government to deal with. But with the huge funds available in the investment community they could play a much more constructive role.

The German coal scheme was based on the principle that no one was left behind. We heard that same phrase often in the election campaign. To achieve that principle we need a German-style national tripartite authority with the power and finance to look after workers until retirement and to diversify regional economies.

How we achieve this should be just as prominent in our national energy debate as targets, technologies and takeovers.

Tony Maher is national president of the Mining and Energy Union.