Paper short abstract:

This paper uses a comparison of Zambian and Australian mine workers to unpack commonalities and differences among experiences of precarious labour

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores configurations of economic, political and social relationships commonly associated with mine labour. It describes the wide variety of mine workers' experiences, ranging from semi-formal extractive livelihoods to professional specialists, while noting that almost all mine employees feel a sense of precariousness due to the financial structures the determine the ways mines operate. By foregrounding labour in the anthropology of mining, the panel contributes to studies of precarious of work, exploring how 'the precariat' has expanded to include highly skilled and relatively well-paid workers (see Hann & Parry 2018). This paper introduces two case studies. It describes how Zambian mine workers turn to their union to provide pay-day loans, food-on-credit and insurance schemes, a response to precarity that necessitates the unions grow ever more compliant with management and reduce union militancy. Through this process trade union leaders, who are frequently Zambian neoliberalism's strongest critiques, perform the political and emotional labor that enables miners' precarious labour. In Australia, FIFO (fly-in, fly-out), DIDO (drive-in, drive-out) and BIBO (bus-in, bus-out) workers have been understudied because their relative wealth and access to resources are taken for granted (Baldassar, 2016; Miller, 2010; Olwig and Sorensen, 2002). This paper considers how these workers use digital media to make and maintain relationships, with digital platforms serving as extensions of reciprocal exchanges between people and wider socialities, revealing how workers and their families navigate expectations, obligations, negotiations and regional identities.