Coolican, Alice Maeve (1989) A history of industrial relations in the Sydney building trades, 1870-1914. PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, Australia.
Abstract
The character and course of industrial regulation both before and upon the introduction of arbitration is a significant subject for study. Much is known of the economic, social and political conditions which led to arbitration but less of its industrial transition or early operation. The collapse of the pre-existing forms of regulation in the depression of the 1890s and the dominance of arbitration after 1900 has generally precluded disaggregated studies of these issues. Yet to understand the industrial experience in particular sectors, the character of regulation before 1890, when and how it changed and the effects of arbitration on relations between unions and employers need to be addressed. The Sydney building trades in the period 1870 to 1914 provide a suitable case study; the industry was an important one in the developing economy, accounting for a large component of the labour force and its workers and employers were organised. The study is historical and traces the course of industrial regulation from union rulemaking to collective bargaining, during state intervention and upon the introduction of arbitration. It focuses on the institutions of workers and employers, the relations they developed and the economic and industrial conditions in which they decided their strategies. The argument put forward is that the transformation in the organisation of work and business organisation brought about by new contracting arrangements had a significant impact on the character of industrial regulation before 1890. The multi-trade employers or master builders who replaced single-trade masters challenged union rules and tradesmen's limited job control. There was a shift to collective bargaining, but the agreements did not endure in the depression. However, unions' and employers' reaction to the conjunction of problems brought about by the change in work organisation affected their response to state policies of the 1890s, their attitudes to arbitration and how they sought to use it.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building trades; arbitration; historical study; industrial relations; regulation; builder; employer; case study; Sydney; Australia |
| Index terms: | Australia, history, case study, regulation, job control, accounting, labour force, building trade, transformation, depression, strategy, developing economy, builder, agreements, bargaining, historical study, industrial relation, arbitration |
| Subjects: | economics, research methods, Geography, economic development, practitioner, economic analysis, management, architectural and construction history, contract formation, data collection methods, health conditions and diseases, dispute resolution, business, psychology, political science |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Supply Chain Management, Research Practice, International Construction, Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Governance, Human Resources, Contract Administration, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here