Mining and energy workers will vote soon on whether to break free of what one senior organiser called the "dysfunctional" CFMMEU.
The mining and energy division of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union is preparing a demerger application to the Fair Work Commission after its national convention delegates voted unanimously for the split this month.
The commission likely will conduct hearings and a ballot of mining and energy members on whether to become an independent union.
The division expects the process, the first under new Commonwealth demerger laws, to take several months.
The split follows a bitter internal battle between the mining and construction arms of the CFMMEU.
Peter Jordan, president of the northern district of the mine workers division, said on Monday that mining and energy workers had merged with the construction union "on the basis that we would operate autonomously and independently".
"Consensus and solidarity have broken down at the national level of the CFMMEU," he said.
"The organisation has become dysfunctional and we have seen unacceptable threats to the principle of divisional autonomy," he said.
"On that basis, I will be encouraging all mining and energy members in our district to exercise their democratic right to vote on the future of their union."
