Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T17:22:49.390Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Breakaway Unions: A Study of the Australian Entertainment Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Grant Michelson
Grant Michelson*
Affiliation:
Department of Industrial Relations, University of Sydney
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Previous research reveals that failure to resolve intra-union conflict may lead to the emergence of breakaways. Drawing on evidence from the Australian entertainment industry, this study examines the more unusual case of an attempt to secede by elements of the leadership (rather than membership) from the Australian Theatrical and Amusement Employees Association. Following secession, the breakaway group merged with a different union. The paper argues that the country’s system of industrial relations shaped the form of the breakaway and ultimately provided the legal vehicle for the disaffected group to split from its parent union. It further shows how union breakaways are not necessarily caused by union merger activity although it often appears that they are.

Type
Current Issues
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , June 1999 , pp. 126 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1999

References

ACTU (1987) Future Strategies for the Trade Union Movement, ACTU, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Adeney, M. and Lloyd, J. (1986) The Miners’ Strike 1984–5: Loss without Limit, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London Google Scholar
Allen, V.L. (1957) Trade Union Leadership, Longmans, London Google Scholar
Blain, N (1984) Industrial Relations in the Air: Australian Airline Pilots, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia Google Scholar
Bray, M. and Rimmer, M. (1987) Delivering the Goods: A History of the NSW Transport Workers Union 1888–1986, Allen and Unwin, Sydney Google Scholar
Bright, D (1981) ‘The Early Years of a Breakaway Union: The APT and the Polytechnic Lecturers’, Industrial Relations Journal, 12(6), pp. 20–33 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgmann, M (1985) ‘Australian Trade Unionism in 1984’, Journal of Industrial Relations, 27(1), pp. 81–88 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campling, J.T. and Michelson, G. (1997) ‘Trade Union Mergers in British and Australian Television Broadcasting’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 35(2), pp. 215–242 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaison, G.N. (1996) Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cockburn, M.R. and Yerbury, D. (1982) ‘The Federal/State Framework of Australian Industrial Relations’ in Cole, K. (ed.), Power, Conflict and Control in Australian Trade Unions, Ringwood, Melbourne, pp. 52–84 Google Scholar
Faulkner, M.P.E. (1984) The Breakaway Trade Union: Revolution or Evolution? Unpublished BEc (Hons) thesis, University of Sydney Google Scholar
Gall, G (1992) ‘The NUJ: A Union in Crisis’, Capital and Class, 48, pp. 7–15 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, M. and Palmer, G. (1997) Employment Relations: Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management in Australia, Second Edition, Macmillan, Melbourne Google Scholar
Griffin, G. and Scarcebrook, V. (1989) ‘Trends in Mergers of Federally-Registered Unions, 1904–1986’, Journal of Industrial Relations, 31(2), pp. 257–262 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartley, J (1994) ‘Case Studies in Organizational Research’, in Cassell, C. and Symon, G. (eds.), Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research, Sage, London, pp. 208–229 Google Scholar
Hearn, M. and Knowles, H. (1996) One Big Union: A History of the Australian Workers Union 1886–1994, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne Google Scholar
Hemingway, J (1978) Conflict and Democracy: Studies in Trade Union Government, Clarendon Press, Oxford Google Scholar
Jackson, M.P. (1991) Policy Making in Trade Unions: The Policy on Decasualisation of Dock Labour, Avebury, Aldershot Google Scholar
Juniper, I (1994) The Part of Breakaway Unionism in the Pit Closure Programme-A Contemporary Catspaw? Unpublished MA thesis, Keele University Google Scholar
Kampf, M (1986) State/Federal Union Relations: A Case Study of Intra-Union Conflict, Discussion paper no. 12, Department of Industrial Relations, University of Western Australia Google Scholar
Lerner, S.W. (1961) Breakaway Unions and the Small Trade Union, Allen and Unwin, London Google Scholar
Lipset, S.M., Trow, M. and Coleman, J. (1956) Union Democracy: What makes Democracy Work in Labor Unions and other Organisations? Doubleday, New York Google Scholar
Martin, R (1980) Review of ‘Conflict and Democracy: Studies in Trade Union Government’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 18(1), pp. 132–133 Google Scholar
Martin, R.M. (1980) Trade Unions in Australia (2nd ed.), Penguin, Ringwood, Victoria Google Scholar
McClelland, R (1991) ‘Moore v Doyle: A Legend Larger than Life?’, Australian Journal of Labour Law, 4(3), pp. 256–260 Google Scholar
McEvoy, K (1988) ‘Dual Registration of Unions: The Forgotten Solution’, Australian Journal of Labour Law, 1 (1), pp. 75–78 Google Scholar
Michelson, G (1998) ‘Trade Union Mergers: An Analysis of the Formation and Evolution of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, 1987–1996’, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of SydneyGoogle Scholar
Mourell, M (1995) ‘Co-existing Registration and Factionalism in Australian Industrial Unions’, Journal of Industrial Relations, 37(1), pp. 24–51 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mourell, M (1996) ‘McJannet’s Case - Moore v. Doyle Resurgent’, Journal of Industrial Relations, 38(3), pp. 467–479 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nomchong, K. and Nolan, J. (1995) ‘Enterprise Flexibility Agreements and Threats to Unions Under the New Federal Act’ in Ronfeldt, P. and McCallum, R. (eds.), Enterprise Bargaining: Trade Unions and the Law, Federation Press, Sydney, pp. 154–183 Google Scholar
Patmore, G.E. (1982) ‘The Origins of the National Union of Railwaymen’, Labour History, 43, pp. 44–52 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plowman, D. and Spooner, K. (1989) ‘Unions in New South Wales’ in Ford, B. and Plowman, D. (eds.), Australian Unions: An Industrial Relations Perspective, Second Edition, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, pp. 104–121 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prindle, D.F. (1988) The Politics of Glamour: Ideology and Democracy in the Screen Actors Guild, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison Google Scholar
Seifert, R.V. (1984) ‘Some Aspects of Factional Opposition: Rank and File and the National Union of Teachers 1967–1982’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 22(3), pp. 372–390 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sykes, E.I. and Glasbeek, H.J. (1972) Labour Law in Australia, Butterworths, Sydney Google Scholar
Teicher, J (1986) ‘Breakaway Unions: An Australian Case’, New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations, 11(3), pp. 149–159 Google Scholar
Waddington, J (1995) The Politics of Bargaining: The Merger Process and British Trade Union Structural Development 1892–1987, Mansell, London Google Scholar
Yerbury, D (1984) ‘Legal Regulation of Unions in Australia: The Impact of Compulsory Arbitration and Adversary Politics’ in Howard, W.A. (ed.), Perspectives on Australian Industrial Relations, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, pp. 82–103 Google Scholar
Yin, R.K. (1989) Case Study Research: Design and Methods (revised ed.), Sage, Newbury Park, California Google Scholar