Edward Davis

The 1987 ACTU Congress: Reconstructing Australia?

* Senior Lecturer, Department of Industrial Relations, University of New South Wales, PO Box I, Kensington, NSW 2033. The 1987 Congress, celebrating the sixtieth year of the ACTU, met at the Dallas Brooks Hall in Melbourne from 7th to llth September. Nine hundred and thirty-four delegates from one hundred and sixty-one affiliated unions and from assorted labour councils attended. These delegates represented approximately 2.4 million adult and half a million junior members.’ There were four new affiliates, one of which was the Australian Journalists Association (AJA). There were a number of international guests, including John Vanderveken, president of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions; Ken Douglas, secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Labour; and James Raman, the secretary of the Fijian Trade Union Congress. There

Reforming the Australian Workplace through Employee Participation

The past decade witnessed a wide range of industrial relations reforms in Australia. Employee participation and industrial democracy was espoused by the Labor government (1983–96) as a key element in its workplace reform program. It was also embraced by the trade union movement and, to a lesser extent, by leading employers and their associations. A case study of employee participation in the Ford Motor Company is used to illustrate the process of workplace reform in Australia during this period While Ford Australia provides a positive example of workplace change, it is argued that the promise of employee participation has not generally been fulfilled in Australian industry. Contributing factors identified in the paper include economic recession, the decline of trade union membership and a lack of ‘people’ skills in managerial ranks.

The 1985 ACTU Congress: Consensus 2

* Lecturer, Department of Industrial Relations, University of New South Wales, PO Box 1, Kensington, NSW 2033. The 1985 Congress was held in the Sydney Town Hall from 9-13 September; 979 delegates, from the ACTU’s 162 unions, attended.’ These delegates represented 2 321 105 adult and 303 191 junior members.’ With the affiliation of the 145 000 member Australian Public Service Federation (previously only the New South Wales Public Service Association was an affiliate) few unions

The Hancock Report and Industrial Democracy

The Hancock Committee did not embark upon an investigation of industrial democracy in Australia. Nonetheless, several of its recommendations will influence the extent to which workers and their representatives participate in the decisions that affect their lives at work. Attention is paid here to the Committees comments on the consultative style of decision making witnessed at the macroeconomic level, to its advocacy of union amalgamations and the signrficance for industrial democracy, and to its support for a broadening of the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Commission. Also discussed are the Committees recommendations on industry consultative councils and on grievance procedures.

The 1983 ACTU Congress: Consensus Rules OK!

* Lecturer in Industrial Relations, Department of Industrial Relations, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2033. The 1983 ACTU Congress was held at the Dallas Brooks Hall in Melbourne from 12 to 16 September. It was attended by 847 delegates from 144 of the ACTU’s 157 unions.’ The Congress was also attended by a number of invited guests, including Ken Douglas, secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, and Andrew Moletsane of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, both of whom spoke at the Congress.

Inside Branch Councils: A Study of Six Unions

This paper reports on aspects of the decision-making process within the management committees of six unions. The following issues are explored: the extent to which a democratic climate prevails within the meetings; the differences and similarities in the experience of large and small unions; and the differences and similarities in the experience of white and blue collar unions.

Book Reviews : BLUE-COLLAR WORKERS IN EASTERN EUROPE Edited by J. F. Triska and C. Gati. George Allen & Unwin, London, 1981, 302 pp.,

Journalists such as Ascherson and MacShane have provided us with detailed eyewitness accounts of the events of August 1980 in Poland, but they do not provide an analytical framework with which to interpret these experiences. At least part of the contribution of this book is that it does provide a framework which can be used to aid interpretation of events in Poland and other Eastern European countries. In addition, the book is of value in its provision of a ’systematic treatment of the East European proletariat’ (p. xi), a relatively neglected topic. The book comprises nine chapters which are issue-oriented or analytical in focus, though two of these chapters concentrate solely on Poland and Yugoslavia. There are then five chapters on blue-collar workers in five different countries, and two chapters on some policy implications arising from what is contended to be a growth of workers’ assertiveness in Eastern Europe. Lipset, first cab off the rank, argues that Marx got it wrong, that history has demonstrated that socialism has not succeeded mature capitalism, but rather has occurred in relatively backward countries. The scarcity experienced in these nominally socialist countries ensures that there will be a continuing struggle for available resources. Further, the ruling elite will maintain the subordination of the working class, and to this end will deprive workers of independent organisations such as unions which might threaten its authority. Few authors in the book disagree. Indeed the thrust of the book is precisely that workers’ discontent and struggle in Eastern Europe can be expected since they comprise an oppressed class. ’

38.50 (hardback),

text. In this case, although some technical terms are unavoidable, the author has made no attempt to eliminate their excessive use or to soften their impact upon the reader, and he even goes so far as to use German sociological terms without explanation or translation. Since the meaning of some passages is further clouded by complex sentence structure and by affected language, it is likely that the only readers who would care to struggle through this book would be those who are already acquainted with its subject matter, and who would be least likely to profit from such a low key review. The second defect is connected with the classificatory schema which forms the basis for the chapter structure. Each different writer is placed into ; a ’school of thought’ which forms the subject matter of a chapter or of part ’ of a chapter. It is a sad reflection upon industrial relations theory that these schools of thought differ not so much in their conclusions about the nature of trade unions, as in the methodological and conceptual tools considered appropriate for analysis. We are told a good deal about the relative merits of systems theory, pluralist theory, social action theory, organisation theory and so on, but learn almost nothing about union growth, organisation, political behaviour, bargaining or any other feature of unionism that might