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A Trans-Tasman Union Community: Growing Global Solidarity
Shelley Harford*
In recent years the peak union organisations of Australia and New Zealand have supported one another's domestic campaigns highlighting the continuing 'trans-Tasman world of work'. This article looks at a strand in the links between Australian and New Zealand worker institutions: the ties between the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the New Zealand Federation of Labour (NZFOL) from 1970 to the mid-1980s. During this period the leaders of the union organisations sought to understand the rapidly globalising world from a formal joint perspective acknowledging their shared economic and industrial circumstances while confirming a 'trans-Tasman union community'; a community focused on global matters and civil rights, with an ability to stretch into the Pacific when necessary. This article argues for the significance of this 'community of interests' in understanding an aspect of the continuing Tasman world and the development of transnational solidarity in the region.
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| The links between the Australian and New Zealand peak trade union organisations, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the New Zealand Federation of Labour (NZFOL) from 1970 to the mid-1980s, signify a community with an international outlook. The union organisations' leaders sought to understand the rapidly globalising world from a joint perspective acknowledging their shared economic and industrial circumstances while influenced by their often similar political environments. They evolved their connections through united leadership focused on global matters and civil rights. These issues stretched their perspectives in two ways: beyond the traditional concerns of union organisations and outside the Tasman world, solidifying ties particularly with the Pacific. |
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A core aspect of this article's rationale is the need to improve understanding of labour relations from a trans-Tasman perspective. This need arises from the continuing integration of the New Zealand and Australian economies, the increasing Australian ownership and management of New Zealand companies, and the desirability of maintaining an open trans-Tasman labour market, which has existed for 200 years and consequently is accepted as a given, especially by New Zealanders.1 This study is pertinent given the introduction and subsequent dismantling in Australia of 'WorkChoices', industrial relations legislation which largely replicates New Zealand labour market reforms of the 1990s. Further, it is hoped this article will fuel debate and enquiry into the history of the NZFOL, a union institution somewhat overlooked by researchers, especially when compared to the ACTU. |
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The beginnings of the latest phase of international economic integration can be traced to developments in the 1970s and 1980s. The parameters for this discussion define a period in which unions faced increasing industrial, economic and social instability along with rising unemployment as government and business priorities began to shift from the worker to the consumer.2 As Australia and New Zealand embraced the freedom of the market, abandoning historic systems of 'domestic defence',3 workers' protection and full employment the union organisations needed to craft innovative responses to a new set of circumstances. This article explores the interaction between the two union organisations during this period of upheaval and how the links constituted an Australasian 'community of interests'.4 Initially I discuss the region that makes up the Tasman world then explore the establishment and operation of an Australasian inter-union council which provides the formal background to trans-Tasman ties. The article focuses on key issues the ACTU and NZFOL coalition successfully addressed particularly anti-apartheid and anti-nuclear activity which expanded into solidarity with the Pacific region. |
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