Peak Unions in Australia: Origins, Purpose, Power, Agency
Bradon Ellem, Ray Markey, John Shields
Federation Press, 2004 - Law - 274 pages
This innovative and comprehensive book is the first detailed study of the making and development of Australian peak unions. For over 150 years, peak unions have beencentral part of the Australian industrial relations landscape. They remain by far the most significant institutional form of inter-union cooperation in the country at the national, state, local and industry scales. They are remarkably varied bodies which have played vital roles in union growth and labour renewal. Some are strong, some weak and a select few have even come close to being unaccountable, a state within a state. This multi-author book systematically examines their nature and influence at different times, in different places. It adopts a unique combination of comparative method and conceptual insights from the fields of industrial relations, history, geography, organisational studies and political science. Its 13 chapters explore the whole range of peak unions and labour councils, from local bodies in Rockhampton, the Illawarra, Wagga Wagga and Broken Hill, through State councils in Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, to the national peak union body, the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The book allies this empirical diversity with an essential theoretical cohesion. It opens with two conceptual chapters which develop a model for explaining the formation and changing purpose and power of peak unions, a model which resonates through all the subsequent chapters.
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action ACTU ACTU's affiliate unions agent of exchange agent of mobilisation Amalgamated arbitration Australian Labor Party Australian Labour authority bargaining Barrier Industrial Council branch Briggs Broken Hill campaign centralised committee communist Congress coordination craft unions Daily Observer delegates disputes District Council early economic Ellem and Shields employers executive formation ideological Illawarra TLC industrial and political Industrial Relations influence institutional inter-union internal Labor Council Labor Party Labour History labour market labour movement labourist leadership March Markey Meeting Minutes Melbourne militant miners NUFs peak body peak union Port Kembla Queensland regional represented Rockhampton role RTLC secretary South Coast South Wales strategy strike structural coupling Sydney TLC Minutes TLC's TLCQ TLCWA trade unions Trades and Labour Trades Hall union body union movement union organisation unionists unity University of Queensland wage Wagga Wagga Western Australia WIUA Wollongong workers