A pay dispute between coal workers and a US mining company has come to an end after months of negotiations, industrial action and lockouts.
Nineteen workers at the United Wambo Washery near Singleton have voted to accept a new enterprise agreement with Peabody Energy.
The agreement will bring an end to a months-long pay dispute that involved the multinational coal producer locking out its own workforce on multiple occasions.
Comment has been sought from Peabody Energy.
The Mining and Energy Union (MEU) said members had indicated they would accept the deal after standing firm through repeated lockouts, lost wages and protected industrial action stretching back to May.
Under the agreement, the union said workers will receive the equivalent of 4 per cent annual increases to total remuneration.
Their second pay rise will be brought forward to six months after the first, and they will get a $5500 sign-on bonus.
The deal also resolves a long-running dispute over accident pay and includes other improvements sought by union members.
The washery has been at the centre of a bitter industrial stand-off since bargaining for a replacement agreement began in July last year.
Workers took protected industrial action from early May, including work stoppages and partial work bans, after rejecting an earlier Peabody offer of 2.5 per cent annual wage increases and changes to bonus arrangements.
Peabody responded with a series of lockouts.
The Herald reported the company first locked out the 19 workers for two weeks from mid-June, before extending the lockout indefinitely into July.
A third lockout was later abandoned after the union mounted a challenge in the Fair Work Commission.
Talks subsequently stalled again as recently as late July, with Peabody saying little progress had been made despite revising its position on accident pay.
MEU Northern Mining and NSW Energy district president Robin Williams said the final agreement showed the dispute could have been resolved much sooner.
"We said from the outset that there was very little between the parties and that Peabody could settle this dispute if it wanted to. That turned out to be exactly right," Mr Williams said.
"When Peabody finally put senior decision-makers in the room and genuinely engaged, we got it done in one meeting. They could have done that months ago.
"Instead, they put 19 families through repeated lockouts trying to force workers to buckle. All Peabody has to show for that strategy is months of unnecessary conflict, costs and an agreement that gives our members what they were fighting for."
Mr Williams said the outcome vindicated members' decision to hold firm through what he described as one of the most aggressive tactics available to an employer, lockouts.
"They exploit the enormous financial imbalance between a multinational corporation and the people who work for it," he said.
"Our members stood together for as long as it took, and they have come out of this dispute with the agreement they fought for."
Peabody has previously defended its handling of the negotiations, saying its offer would keep Wambo employees among the highest paid in the region and pointing to more than a dozen formal bargaining meetings held with the union over the course of the dispute.
On July 31, a Peabody statement said it had participated in an extensive bargaining process and was focused on resolving the remaining issues.
"Our objective continues to be reaching an agreement that fairly recognises employees' contributions while supporting the long-term sustainability and future of the operation."
Mr Williams said the victory belonged to the workers, their families and everyone who supported them throughout the dispute.
"With the support of members and the broader community, these 19 took on a multinational coal company, endured repeated lockouts and refused to sell each other out for an easier way back through the gate.
"They held the line and they won."
