Trade Unions in Politics in Australia and New Zealand
| Date | 01 December 1966 |
| Published date | 01 December 1966 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296601900406 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
672
TRADE
UNIONS
IN
POLITICS
IN
AUSTRALIA
AND
NEW
ZEALAND
JOSEPHINE
F.
MILBURN
Simmons
College
TRONG
TRADE
UNION
movements
are
often
thought
to
exist
only
after
~~~
significant
industrialization
has
occurred
within
a
country.’-
Yet
unions
have
long
been
powerful
forces
in
New
Zealand
and
Australia,
even
though
the
economies
of
these
two
countries
have
depended
primarily
upon
agricultural
exports
since
the
latter
part
of
the
nineteenth
century.2
The
major
concern
of
this
paper
will
be
to
observe
the
operation
of
trade
unions
in
the
Australian
and
New
Zealand
political
scenes,
and
to
establish,
if
possible,
a
frame
of
reference
which
could
be
used
as
a
model
for
the
comparison
of
the
political
role
of
trade
unions
within
the
British
Commonwealth
and
other
countries.
The
political
activity
of
unions
in
both
countries
will
be
discussed
in
terms
of
their
contacts
with
the
public,
parties,
legislatures,
executives,
bureaucracies,
and
judicial
systems.3
TRADE
UNION
DEVELOPMENT
IN
AUSTRALIA
Governmental
regulation
of
labor
has
been
one
of
the
principal
factors
affect-
ing
trade
union
organization
in
Australia
and
New
Zealand.
Not
only
have
there
been
laws
to
permit
organization,
but
there
has
also
been
legislation
with
the
effect
of
promoting
and,
indeed,
requiring
unionization.
Conciliation
and
arbitration
laws,
which
require
an
agent
to
speak
on
behalf
of
the
workers,
were
first
passed
NOTE :
This
article
is
based
upon
the
Australian
and
New
Zealand
sections
of
a
paper
pre-
pared
for
the
1961
Annual
Meeting
of
the
American
Political
Science
Association,
St.
Louis,
Missouri.
For
helpful
advice
and
suggestions,
the
author
wishes
to
express
appre-
ciation
to
J.
L.
Roberts,
Victoria
University
of
Wellington;
W.
A.
Townsley
and
Myron
L.
Tripp,
University
of
Tasmania;
R.
S.
Parker
and
D.
W.
Rawson,
Australian
National
University;
R.
M.
Martin,
University
of
Sydney;
and
Bruce
Brown,
New
Zealand
Mis-
sion
to
the
United
Nations,
New
York.
1
Cf.
Wilbert
E.
Moore
and
Arnold
S.
Feldman
(eds.),
Labor
Commitment
and
Social
Change
in
Developing
Areas
(New
York:
Social
Science
Research
Council,
1960),
p.
8.
Stanley
Rothman
states
that
trade
unions
are
a
product
of
industrial
society
in
"Syste-
matic
Political
Theory,"
APSR,
54
( March
1960),
20.
Many
studies
on
European
trade
unions
are
mentioned
in
Henry
W.
Ehrmann
(ed.),
Interest
Groups
on
Four
Con-
tinents
(Pittsburgh:
U.
of
Pittsburgh
Press,
1958),
passim;
and
in
Val
R.
Lorwin,
"Recent
Research
on
Western
European
Labor
Movements,"
Proceedings,
Industrial
Relations
Research
Association,
7th
Annual
Meeting
(1954),
pp.
1-12.
Also
see
Walter
Galenson,
Trade
Union
Democracy
in
Western
Europe
(Berkeley:
U.
of
California
Press,
1961).
2
Sources
on
the
Australian
and
New
Zealand
labor
movements
are
mentioned
in
Josephine
F.
Milburn
and
Taylor
Cole,
"Bibliographical
Material
on
Political
Parties
and
Pressure
Groups
in
Australia,
New
Zealand,
and
South
Africa,"
APSR,
52
(March
1957),
199-
213.
References
to
other
sources
since
1957
are
included
in
W.
A.
Townsley,
"Australia,"
in
Ehrmann,
op.
cit.,
pp.
21-32;
in
Australian
Institute
of
Political
Science,
Trade
Unions
in
Australia
(Sydney:
Angus
and
Rebertson,
1959) ;
and
in
S.
R.
Davis
and
Colin
A.
Hughes,
"Literature
on
Australian
Government
and
Politics,"
Australian
jour-
nal
of
Politics
and
History,
4
(August
1958),
118-20.
3
Relations
with
the
judiciary
should
be
examined
in
any
interest-group
study,
yet
they
have
not
been
discussed
in
most
recent
recommendations
on
methodology
for
comparative
observations.
See
Gabriel
A.
Almond,
"Comparative
Study
of
Interest
Groups,"
APSR,
52
(March
1958), 273-81;
and
Ehrmann,
op.
cit.,
1-8.
673
in
New
Zealand
and
in
some
Australian
states
during
the
1890’s
and
by
the
Austral-
ian
federal
government
in
1904.
Australia’s
first
compulsory
arbitration
law
was
passed
by
the
New
South
Wales
legislature
in
1901
and
was
incorporated
in
the
1904
Commonwealth
Act.
In
1936
the
New
Zealand
government
adopted
similar
legislation.
New
Zealand’s
laws
resulted
in
compulsory
unionization
until
1961
when
two
alternatives
were
provided
for
workers
toward
unionization,
while
Australia
continues
to
consider
laws
that
would
result
in
obligatory
organization
of
workers.4
In
New
Zealand
after
1961
membership
in
a
union
could
be
a
condition
of
employment
if
more
than
50 per
cent
of
the
workers
so
desired
or
if
it
were
so
agreed
in conciliation.
Trade
unionism
in
Australia
and
New
Zealand
has
developed
from
organiza-
tion
by
individual
craft
and
industry
to
the
formation
of
federal
or
national
groups.5
5
Today,
with
the
continually
increasing
powers
of
the
federations,
it
is
possible
to
describe
the
labor
movements
mainly
through
the
activities
of
these
national
bodies.
Even
though
agricultural
products
are
the
most
important
exports
in
both
countries,
agricultural
workers
constitute
only
a
small
proportion
of
the
labor
force.
In
New
Zealand
during
1961
(latest
figures
available)
750,890
workers
out
of
a
total
labor
force
of
895,300
were
classified
as
wage
earners.
Forty-four
per
cent
belonged
to
industrial
unions,
and
three-quarters
of
the
union
mem-
bers
belonged
to
unions
affiliated
with
the
New
Zealand
Federation
of
Labour
(NZFL).’
In
Australia
in
1961,
57
per
cent
of
the
approximately
3
million
wage
earners
(total
labor
force
was
4.2
million)
belonged
to
unions
and
specific
func-
tional
and
industrial
federations,
60
per
cent
of
which
were
affiliated
with
the
Australian
Council
of
Trade
Unions
(ACTU).7
About
5
per
cent
of
the
wage
4
AWU,
Australian
Worker,
1961
issues;
Kenneth
F.
Walker,
Industrial
Relations
in
Australia
(Cambridge:
Harvard
U.
Press,
1956);
for
1958
amendments
to
ICA
acts
see
J.
H.
Portus,
The
Development
of
Australian
Trade
Union
Law
(Carlton:
Melbourne
U.
Press,
1958),
p.
261;
Australian
Bureau
of
Census
and
Statistics,
Labour
Report,
46
( 1958) ;
R.
M.
Martin,
"Twenty
Years
of
Compulsory
Unionism,"
Political
Science,
8
(September
1956),
104-21;
New
Zealand
Official
Yearbook,
1960,
p.
1087,
and
1963,
p.
1016;
A.
Tyndall,
"The
New
Zealand
System
of
Industrial
Conciliation
and
Arbitra-
tion,"
International
Labor
Review,
82
(1960),
138-62.
5
For
discussion
of
the
early
union
movements,
see
Robin
Gollan,
Radical
and
Working
Class
Politics:
1850-1910
(Melbourne:
Melbourne
U.
Press,
1960).
See
also
Kenneth
F.
Walker,
"Australia,"
in
Walter
Galenson
(ed.),
Comparative
Labour
Movements
(New
York:
Prentice-Hall,
1952);
L.
G.
Churchward,
"The
American
Influence
on
the
Aus-
tralian
Labour
Movement,"
Historical
Studies:
Australia
and
New
Zealand,
5
Novem-
ber
1952),
257-77.
Early
documents
are
found
in
R.
N.
Ebbels
(ed.
L.
G.
Churchward),
The
Australian
Labor
Movement,
1805-1907
(Sydney:
Australian
Book
Society,
1960).
Other
sources
on
the
early
labor
movements
are
mentioned
in
Milburn
and
Cole,
op.
cit.,
202-3,
206,
207-8,
212;
Josephine
F. Milburn,
"Socialism
and
Social
Reform
in
Nineteenth
Century
New
Zealand"
(hereafter
referred
to
as
"Nineteenth
Century"),
and
"Socialism
and
Social
Reform
in
Twentieth
Century
New
Zealand"
(hereafter
referred
to
as
"Twentieth
Century"),
Political
Science,
12
(March
and
Sep-
tember
1960),
62-70,
and
168-90.
6
New
Zealand
Official
Yearbook,
1960,
pp.
601,
1061,
1084-86;
1964,
1965,
1006-8;
J.
L.
Roberts,
telephone
discussion
with
K.
Baxter,
secretary
of
the
NZFL,
July
1961.
These
figures
include
agricultural
workers
totaling
about
130,000,
and
some
self-employed
proprietors,
44,000.
7
Some
of
the
statistics
on
the
wage
earners
and
union
membership
include
sections
of
agricul-
tural
workers
(460,600
in
1954)
and
self-employed
(677,800
in
1954).
AWU
member-
ship
in
1959
was
about
80,000
workers.
The
sources
for
the
statistics
include:
Australia,
Year
Book,
1959,
441-56;
1960,
464-68;
1962,
462;
1965,
390,
480-85;
Commonwealth
Bureau
of
Census
and
Statistics,
Labour
Report,
1955-1958
(Canberra:
Government
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