Tom Sheridan

Division of Labour: Industrial Relations in the Chifley Years 1945-1949

The prime ministership of J.B. Chifley from 1945 to 1949 covered one of the most turbulent periods in the history of Australian industrial relations. Popularly believed to be the work of agitators sent by Moscow, the labor unrest during this period was actually due to other, more domestic factors. Here, Sheridan presents an authoritative account of the events and people of this era. He challenges long-held beliefs and provides new insights into this watershed period in Australian politics and industrial relations.

Partial Anatomy of a Union: A Sample of A.E.U. Recruiting, 1914-1952

THE AMALGAMATED Engineering Union (A.E.U.) is the successor of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers formed in England in 1851, and until 1968 the Australian A.E.U. was a part of a larger parent union in Britain. The first Australian branch was established in Sydney in 1852 by 27 society members who had emigrated after a bitter lockout in Britain. In the nineteenth century British engineers also formed branches of the union in the United States of America, Canada, France, Malta, Constantinople, Bombay, South Africa and New Zealand. The change in name occurred in 1924 following an amalgamation by the British union with several smaller sectional SoCietieS.2

Australia's Own Cold War: The Waterfront under Menzies

Review(s) of: Australias Own Cold War: The Waterfront Under Menzies, by Tom Sheridan, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2006. pp. xiv + 391.

Book Reviews : LIFE ON THE WATERFRONT: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY By Tas Bull. HarperCollins Publishers, Sydney, 1998, xiii + 268 pp. (no price stated)

49.95 print-on demand,

Opposition, Factions and Candidates in AEU Elections in Australia 1907-72

39.95 e-book.

Mandarins, Ministers and the Bar on Married Women

level worker needs and able to mobilise power in the workplace. The problem this analysis faces is tivofold. First, putting growth second may mean that it does not happen. Second, the general record of unionism and, as Posusney demonstrates, of Egyptian unionism in particular, has involved a degree of politicisation that has often undermined its capacity to be a genuine representative of workers. Those with an interest in such questions in their own environments ought to read Posusney’s account of how they have been played out in Egypt in the last fifty years.

Australian Wharfies 1943-1967: Casual Attitudes, Militant Leadership and Workplace Change

This paper analyses 65 years of data on elections to paid office in Australias largest manufacturing union. Attention is mainly concentrated on the changing nature of both candidates and opposition within the AEU. The closeness of elections, the supply of candidates and differences between ballots for vacant and occupied positions are noted. The period of most intense combat between two organised parties within the AEU seems to be causally connected with the subsequent slump of interest in elections among the unions members.