READER INGENDER, WORK ANDORGANIZATION
Edited by Robin J. Ely, Erica G. Foldy and Maureen A. Scully. Blackwell Pub-lishing, Malden, Massachussetts, 2003, xiv+440 pp., US$97.00 (paperback)
Compiled in the USA, this important collection aims to achieve the crucial goal that was earlier formulated in the UK in the 1990s—by the influential and inter-disciplinary British journal,Gender, Work and Organization. A growing dialogue between feminist theorists of work and scholars in organisation studies spurred the formation of the journal in 1993 with a charter to emphasise gender as a central and essential theme of all social science research in the field of work and organisation. Interestingly, the editors of thisReader in Gender, Work and Organi-zationmake no mention of the groundbreaking work of that British journal. Such omission seems to verify the argument of Patricia Martin and David Collinson in their 2002 article (Over the pond and across the water: developing the field of gendered organizations.Gender, Work and Organization9, 244–65), who puzzled over the gap in interaction that appears to divide British and American work in this area. Martin and Collinson observed that in the pages of the journal, European, Canadian and Australian articles jostled for space alongside British contributions, yet American articles were few and far between.
However, theReader in Gender, Work and Organizationgives the lie to any idea that—at least in this sector of the US tradition—theory is viewed as less important than empiricism. The book draws on 31 previously published theoretical articles (most of them from North American writers) to provide the background to the editors’ own theory of organisational intervention. That theory, developed as a basis for gaining organisational support for gender equity by the Center for Gender in Organizations (CGO) at Simmons College in Boston, argues that if one is to successfully challenge the inequalities which continue to produce ineffective workplaces, then one needs a gender lens to surface and combat the assumptions that privilege the middle-class white men who run them. The CGO is renowned for using that theory as a basis for its interventionist work with organisations.
This book is designed to explain and interrogate that theory by showing its links with the growing canon of feminist ideas on work and organisations. Based around seven sections, the collection takes the reader through a journey of discovery. It begins by demonstrating how a gender lens can illuminate the gendering of organisations, then goes on to assess how other dimensions of difference can complement, but also unsettle their own theoretical approach. The first section should be required reading not only for students, but also for all who work in industrial relations and human resource management (HRM). It sets the scene for the book by introducing the reader to the concept of gender, and in so doing demonstrates four different ‘frames’ for understanding gender in organisations.
The editors begin with three articles, all of which the introductory overview critiques as inadequate in some sense. The section then turns the reader’s attention to the CGO’s preferred ‘fourth frame’ approach, based on the theory of gendered organisation developed by Acker, and complemented by ideas of ‘doing gender’ (West and Zimmerman), theories of men and masculinities (Collinson and Hearn) and the complications that race and class add to a gender analysis (Holvino). This section also includes an overview that sets out the CGO framework for promoting gender equity in organisations.
The later sections of the book deepen and complicate the analysis of gendered organisations by emphasising key topics in management: negotiation, leadership, organisational change and intervention, diversity, HRM and globalisation. Al-though the book as a whole would make a strong text for an interdisciplinary postgraduate program, teachers will also find it useful for introducing a gender segment to general courses on those topics. To this end, Fletcher’s chapter on post-heroic models in the leadership section, Meyerson and Scully’s chapter on ‘tempered radicals’ in the organisational change area, Hochschild’s ‘nanny chain’ in the globalisation section and Thomas and Ely’s chapter on diversity make lucid and telling reading. For areas more directly recognisable as industrial relations, the sections on negotiation and HRM provide much room for reflection.
I recommend this book as a useful contribution to one’s shelves, first, as a teaching resource for drawing together much of the recent writing in the field, and second, for showing how practical interventionist work, despite its vulnerabilities and uncertainties, can be solidly based on theoretical innovation.
JOANEVELINE
UNIVERSITY OFWESTERNAUSTRALIA
EMPLOYMENTRELATIONS ANDHRMINSOUTHKOREA
By Dong-One Kim and Johngseok Bae. Ashgate, Aldershot, 2004, xviii+238 pp.,
£55 (hardback)
Korea’s rapid economic development is examined in chapter 2. The economy grew by approximately 10% per year in the 1970s and 1980s and by some 7% a year up to the financial crisis of 1997. Such high growth rates culminated in per capita income rising from US$240.00 in 1970 to US$11380.00 in 1996. Nevertheless, the authors note that ‘the labour market also has a dark side, epitomized by long working hours and a high incidence of industrial accidents’ (p. 27). There was a considerable rise in fatalities at work, from 1660 in 1986 to 2528 in 1998, and a concomitant jump in occupational injuries over the same period.
In chapter 3, the authors provide a detailed overview of the cultural influences that permeate Korean society and that have had an important bearing on work-place relationships. These cultural influences include Korea’s Confucian heritage and neo-Confucianism which takes into account the impact of Western values and Christianity on Korean society. A further cultural influence is that of ‘dynamic collectivism’ which involves maintaining a strong degree of harmony among the ‘in-group’, an optimistic outlook towards the future, and the demonstration of a ‘can do’ approach to achieving difficult goals. Nevertheless, the authors suggest that there is also a downside to such single mindedness: ‘Some negative implica-tions include neglect of due process, sacrifice of personal and family life and loss of health’ (p. 43). A further cultural trait is that of Yongoism whereby people are connected by virtue of their blood relationships, education or as a result of coming from the same birthplace. Blood relatives receive strong preferential treatment in promotion decisions to senior managerial positions. Coming from the same high school or university is also very important to career progression within political parties, managerial hierarchies and Korean universities. For example, in 2001, some 96% of the academic staff employed by Seoul National University were former graduates of that university.
An excellent review of the history of Korean industrial relations is provided in chapter 4. It documents the formation of the first unions in seafaring and mining communities in the 1890s, repression of labour unrest and harsh working condi-tions for much of the Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945, the outlawing of the left leading union movement Chun Pyung by the American Military Government in the post World War II period, and the widespread suppression of labour unrest by the military dictatorship of Park Chung-hee from 1961 to 1979. The chapter also emphasises the role of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in manipulat-ing union elections and the role of ‘disguised workers’, mainly student activists, who entered industrial estates in the early 1980s to organise factory workers.
Union membership also changed dramatically from predominantly female-dominated unions in light industries to male-female-dominated unions in heavy indus-tries, and white-collar employees in the banking, insurance and communications industries. In addition, collective bargaining became widely established and a labour movement independent from employers and the state emerged. Never-theless, the authors note that this beneficial period for independent union or-ganisation ended in 1989 when the state and employers resumed their traditional approach of union suppression and avoidance. For example, the police resumed their former practice of intervening on the side of employers in industrial disputes. This authoritarian approach continued under the presidency of Kim Young-sam from 1993 to 1998.
The impact of the financial crisis is considered in chapter 6. Unemployment rose from 2.1% in 1997 to 8.6% in 1999 and ‘has become a more chronic, en-trenched social problem than previously’ (p. 121). Concession bargaining and a concern for job security dominated wage negotiations and real wages fell by 9.3% in 1999. There was also a significant rise in the use of contingent workers by em-ployers, up from 46% of the overall workforce to 53% by 2000. Nevertheless, the authors contend that the crisis has made trade unions more active and dynamic in the long run. It increased the level of union organising among employees in small and medium-sized firms, with non-unionised workers bearing the brunt of job shedding. It also led to increased competition between the conservative union body, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, and the more militant and inde-pendent Korean Confederation of Trade Unions for members. This resulted in both union bodies initiating waves of strikes in opposition to employers’ downsiz-ing initiatives. In addition, the fallout from the financial crisis facilitated a move from an enterprise-based to an industry-based union structure.
Given the wealth of empirical evidence to the contrary, it is difficult to concur with the authors’ optimistic conclusions that Korean industrial relations have shifted from state corporatism (1890–1986) to ‘exploratory pluralism’ (1987– 1997), to societal corporatism (post-1997). Much of the book points instead to a return to a more authoritarian approach by the state after 1989, albeit under greater scrutiny by the international community, and a return to union avoidance by many employers. The authors do, however, demonstrate a convincing need for stronger institutions to enable the parties to negotiate and settle industrial disputes. The lack of an adequate institutional structure is linked to the exces-sively narrow scope for taking legal industrial action and the subsequent high rate of imprisonment experienced by trade union activists. The authors encourage the Korean government to revise the legal framework for industrial relations so that it complies with international labour standards. Overall, the book is strongly recommended because of its exhaustive account of Korean industrial relations supported by a wealth of tables and statistical data. Such detailed analysis will prove an invaluable resource to those interested in comparative industrial rela-tions and to those with an interest in the turbulent evolution of Korean industrial relations.
MICHAELO’DONNELL
THEPARADOX OFAMERICANUNIONISM: WHYAMERICANSLIKE UNIONSMORE THANCANADIANSDO BUTJOINMUCHLESS
By Seymour Martin Lipset and Noah M. Meltz. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2004, xii+226 pp., US$32.50 (hardback)
Industrial relations and labour studies researchers on the North American continent have long been fascinated by the sharply different trajectories of the US and Canadian labour movements since the mid-1960s. Before 1965, union density in the two countries was very similar, but since that time union den-sity in the USA went into freefall (from about 25% to about 14% in 2001), whereas the Canadian rate rose to about 35% and then fell back to 30%. What makes this divergence between the two countries so fascinating is that in many other respects the two countries are so similar. They have a massive unguarded border, quite similar and thoroughly integrated economies, the same language (with the exception of the French-speaking province of Quebec) and broadly similar cultural and entertainment industries. What could possibly explain the difference in the fate of the labour movement in these two roughly similar counties?
To deepen the paradox, polls show that citizens of the USA approve of unions more strongly than do Canadian citizens. A poll conducted by the authors found that 91% of union members in the USA approve of unions versus 84% in Canada, whereas 66% of nonmembers in the USA share that opinion as opposed to 55% in Canada. A number of similar sentiments, such as tending to side with unions in the event of a dispute, or believing that unions are good for the country as a whole show consistently more favourable attitudes among US citizens, member and non-member alike.
How can we explain the difference? The authors provide evidence that some frequently stated explanations are not sound. For example, Canadian employers (according to the book’s poll) are more hostile to unions than are their US coun-terparts, not less. It must be noted that the results of their poll on the US side are almost impossible to believe, because they show employer attitudes strongly at variance with employer behaviour. According to the poll, 15% of US employers would actually welcome a union, whereas 44% would do nothing to oppose one. The supposed 59%, who would in no way oppose unionisation are contrary to private sector employer behaviour, where close to all private employers oppose unionisation, many of them strongly and some of them viciously. Clearly, US employers are not being candid when they answer polls in this manner. Be that as it may, the authors make a good point that the difference between the two countries seems to be that in the US employer opposition, including intimidating and conflict-ridden forms of opposition, is allowed to a much greater degree, thus making it much more effective.
from the depression and World War II years. Their case is quite convincing that strength of political support (or opposition) is the key to organised labour’s overall well-being.
So, why is the Canadian political climate so much more supportive of unions than that of the USA, especially given that both countries are democracies and that public approval of unions is higher in the latter? An obvious answer is the absence of a labour party or social democratic (or socialist) party in the USA, whereas Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) is firmly rooted in unions and plays that role. The authors accept this answer as being the key to the difference.
However, they attempt to go deeper by providing an explanation for why no labour or social democratic party exists in the USA. This constitutes the contro-versial part of their book. They argue that positiveattitudestowards unions in the USA are actually at variance with much more deeply heldvalues that are quite harmful to unions. They claim that the USA has always been an individualistic and hyper-capitalistic society, whereas Canada has always held more communitarian (‘Tory-social democratic’) values at the core of its value structure. Thus, an in-fertile value structure prevents the USA from having a labour or labour-oriented political party. No such obstacle exists in Canada, and thus the NDP is able to push the ‘terms of debate’ sufficiently in a pro-labour direction and sees more favourable labour law is enacted federally and in most provinces.
This is an intriguing hypothesis, and the authors produce much survey evidence that US citizens tend to think in less collective terms. But this ‘values culture’ ar-gument is quite debatable. Rather than some inherent ‘culture’ difference between the two societies, it might simply be the fact that the USA, lacking a parliamentary system like Canada’s, has a winner-takes-all political system that narrows polit-ical representation to two parties. Canada’s NDP originated as a third party—a viable option in the Canadian parliamentary context, but a recipe for isolation in the USA under any circumstances apart from the total breakdown of at least one of the two major political parties. With only two political parties, it is next to impossible to build a strong and ideologically labour-oriented electoral party in the USA. This would not be a problem if the USA had a parliamentary system such as the one that exists in Canada.
The authors’ cultural argument may be correct, but I am suspicious of argu-ments that explain differences by something as abstract as ‘values’ and ‘culture’. A perfectly good explanation can be had by simply pointing to the differences in the political systems of the two countries, differences that allow business interests to dominate both parties and most political discourse in the USA to a degree not possible in Canada. In any case, this is an interesting and provocative book. It is well argued and the authors marshal their evidence well. This reviewer remains unconvinced, but the authors have done us a favour by entering the debate of North American unionism.
BRUCENISSEN
EMPLOYMENTRELATIONSHIPS: NEWZEALAND’SEMPLOYMENT RELATIONSACT
Edited by Erling Rasmussen. Auckland University Press, Auckland, 2004, 210 pp., NZ$50.00 (paperback)
Over the past two decades, New Zealand workers have lived under four different labour laws. Each of these has attempted to remake the law of the workplace in order to achieve a broad set of goals. These laws have ranged from modernising industrial relations and supporting collective bargaining to putting into effect various economic theories, improving productivity and the economy in general, and promoting the appropriate balance of workplace power. Clearly, labour law in New Zealand bears a heavy burden.
This edited volume examines the performance of the most recent of these laws, theEmployment Relations Act(ERA), 2000. The book includes work from a number of authors, many of whom have been leading New Zealand industrial relations and labour law scholars. The essays fall into three main categories. Some pro-vide quantitative and qualitative data on the ERA’s performance. Others analyse how the ERA and institutions created to enforce it have performed. The rest are assessments of the law from the point of view of its primary author, employers, unions and industrial relations theory. I would certainly recommend the book to those interested in industrial relations, the process of law reform and New Zealand society.
That said, the book unfortunately falls short of its potential. My criticisms go to missed opportunities here and a hope that there will be a follow up that capitalises on those opportunities. First, the book suffers from being an edited volume that does not sufficiently integrate the work into a whole. It also has an overly insular perspective. Although it tries to provide background in the introduction, this is probably not sufficient for most readers. The individual essays assume knowledge about New Zealand people, cases, history, developments and the text and struc-ture of the ERA. North American and European readers, in particular, will not understand fundamental aspects of New Zealand labour law and history. It is a shame not to have reached out to a broader audience, and this could easily have been done by, for example, arranging the essays with an eye to educating the reader, supplying a glossary or explanatory information within essays, including a copy of the ERA’s relevant provisions, providing a timeline and taking more editorial control over the individual essays to fill gaps.
Second, the book is little more than the sum of its parts. The essays do not build on one another. In addition, some of the essays are only descriptive in content. The information they provide cries out for context and analysis. As a result, this book provides data that could be used to shed light on fascinating issues that matter a great deal: why law reform fails, how legislative drafting can affect law reform success and what role institutions and judicial interpretation play in law reform. This is the book I would like to see someone write using the data in this book and in other work on New Zealand labour laws since 1987.
unexamined. For example, in the USA, the law provides that collective bargaining must take place based on job classifications and not based on membership in a union or by individuals. In recent years, there have been strong proponents of ‘collective’ bargaining based, instead, on ‘individual’ choice. The proponents are quite sanguine about such a reform as being the way to resolve the decline in US unions.
But would they be as interested if they knew that this sort of arrangement in New Zealand has led to the most severe decline in unionisation of any country and a serious deterioration in workplace conditions? The essays repeatedly return to the problem this system has had with ‘free riders’ and the ways in which employers have used minority representation to undermine unions and collective bargaining, in spite of explicit efforts to graft on ways to prevent this from happening. The New Zealand experience suggests the problem is inherent in minority representation. New Zealand’s experiences have much that is valuable, and important parts of the story are in this book. Unfortunately, the reader has to work harder than necessary to find and understand them.
ELLENDANNIN
WAYNESTATEUNIVERSITY(DETROIT)
THEFUTURE OFWORKERREPRESENTATION
Edited by Geraldine Healy, Edmund Heery, Phil Taylor and William Brown. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2004, xvi+325 pp., £55.00 (hardback)
This book is the product of the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council Future of Workresearch program which, in total, funded over 100 researchers across 22 UK universities. The editors are distinguished scholars in the field and have brought together leading contributors across a range of disciplines to assess how the representation gap may be filled, examining both union and non-trade union institutions of worker representation. In chapter 1, Heery, Healy and Taylor set the scene with a well-articulated review of four theoretical models of union behaviour and worker representation: societal, institutional, organisational and agency perspectives. This is not only thorough, but a review of contrasting debates on each of these models which provides the reader with some very insightful and analytical linkages to the following 12 chapters.
As with many edited books, its value can be assessed as a total package and from the contributions in each chapter. In presenting the volume as a package, the editors structure the chapters around four distinct ‘clusters’, with each cluster contributing in some way to the theoretical perspectives outlined in chapter 1.
life-long learning). Two chapters make up ‘cluster 3’, presenting an assessment of union–management partnerships. The final ‘cluster’ includes four chapters that address issues concerned with non-trade union institutions of worker represen-tation (statutory forms of represenrepresen-tation such as works councils and the new in-formation and consultation directive, employment agencies, the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux (CAB) and a community coalition campaign among low-paid workers in East London).
It is beyond the scope here to provide a detailed account of every chapter, so I will comment selectively across the themed clusters of the chapters. The first cluster starts with the chapter by Hyman, Lockyer, Marks and Scholarios look-ing at the attitudes of software workers. This is a valuable chapter that provides much needed data about a neglected occupation employed in a ‘new’ sector of the economy. However, there is a limitation. We are told that the research confirms ‘adherence to individual values’ because software workers perceive collective rep-resentation to be ‘an unimportant aspect of their own jobs’ (p. 45). This makes some sense given the character of software workers, although it also illustrates the problem of interpretation for the researcher. The conclusion is based on re-sponses to three questions/statements: ‘management have the right to manage’; ‘people have the right to take industrial action’ and ‘independent employee rep-resentation is very important’ (abbreviated). On closer examination, it seems the evidence is less clear about the attachment to individualistic values per se. Almost half ‘disagree/strongly disagree’ that management have the right to manage, and over half (58%) ‘agree/strongly agree’ that people have the right to strike for a fair deal. This is hardly the stuff of wholesale individualism.
Interestingly, the research instruments and questions are again used in chapter 3 by Bain, Taylor, Gilbert and Gall on call centres (both teams were part of the same relatedFuture of Workresearch projects). As one might expect, there are different results (and explanations) for call centre workers than for those employed in software. For example, higher proportions (68%) of call centre workers feel people should have the right to strike to get a fair deal. The variability of responses is important across these sectors and case studies. Both chapters serve to illustrate that the context of employment, the nature of work and labour market mobility are powerful explanatory factors.
The next chapter in cluster 1 is from Marchington, Rubery and Lee Cooke as-sessing worker voice across newer organisational forms—among subcontractors, temporary and outsourced employee jobs. The data are used to contrast models of union partnership with union organising from a multi-agency network perspec-tive. For anyone seeking information on worker representation in newer sectors of the economy, then cluster 1 is of considerable value. The conclusions will be of little comfort, however, to those who harbour hopes for greater representation and/or union mobilisation. This exposes the limitations of traditional models of representation for those workers who are more mobile, feel insecure and subject to network agencies as part of their employment pattern.
workplace, with identifiable impacts from the women interviewed. However, it would have been helpful to have had a clearer ‘measure’ of union revitalisation. For example, the evidence that two of the women set up union branches in non-union firms seems significant, yet the size and character of such new membership are lacking.
Chapter 6 by Heery, Conley, Delbridge, Simms and Stewart reports multiple sets of data from unions representing non-standard workers. The data are system-atic and engage with debates about the role of representatives/full-time officers as agents of change, along with issues of external labour market casualisation. The complexity of a long-standing union dilemma is captured very well here: namely, whether unions should recruit and represent agency labour, or exclude such groups of workers by protecting core members employed in more stable and permanent employment. The conclusions advance our understanding of union action with the authors painting an ‘evolutionary model’ of union behaviour. Al-though unions have always used similar multiple roles, what stands out here is the interplay between internal policy choice, labour market contingencies and institutional regulation. It is suggested that an ‘evolutionary’ pattern of bargain-ing activity subsumed with legal and political action is replacbargain-ing previous models dependent almost exclusively on voluntary collective bargaining.
The final chapter in the second cluster provides a comprehensive analysis of trade unions and workplace learning, especially the new legally constituted Union Learning Representative. The broad conclusions drawn from the cluster 2 set of chapters are quite variable. On the one hand, these chapters are supportive of the importance of actors in influencing change and organisational behaviour, even when union activists face an uphill struggle for recognition and legitimisation. In contrast, I also found the general thrust of the conclusions to be less integrated with the objectives set out in the introductory chapter. The role of the state and other institutional bodies is also important in the findings of these chapters, and there is considerable conceptual and intellectual overlap with other clusters. ‘Cluster 3’ tackles union–management partnerships in Britain in two chapters. The first, by Danford, Richardson, Stewart, Tailby and Upchurch assesses the partnership arrangement in a multi-union case study in the aerospace industry. The case study is defined as a ‘high road/innovative/high performance work sys-tem’ (HPWS) organisation (pp. 170–71). The argument is unambiguous: that in reality, there is no dichotomy between high and low road management strategies and workers ultimately experience the degradation of increasing flexibility, man-agerial cost control and the extrapolation of profit maximisation. Here, we have a Marxist and labour process analysis of a contemporary phenomenon, reinforc-ing familiar critiques surroundreinforc-ing partnership as a weakness rather than strength for union revitalisation. This is an important debate in its own right, but some lingering doubts remain after reading the chapter. I was left wondering whether this particular case study is in fact a HPWS organisation, as defined in the early part of the chapter. If it is, then the chapter is highly illustrative of the poten-tial pitfalls unions are likely to face when relying on ideas of mutual gains with management.
sectors of the economy. They argue that unions that experience ‘robust’ rather than ‘shallow’ relationships with management, for them partnership seems to pro-vide more stable benefits. One of the conclusions across the chapters in cluster 3 is a variant of the incorporationist thesis: that partnership exposes unions to possible membership withdrawal and alienation, as members perceive activists as being too close to management.
The final four chapters in the volume make up cluster 4, concerned with non-union institutions of worker representation. The contribution from Hall and Terry is an evaluation of the possible impact on worker representation as a result of the new European Information and Consultation Directive. The argument here is the Directive is unlikely to stimulate much union renewal as a single channel of representation. Of all the chapters in the book, this one does not report any empirical data, although it draws quite nicely on ‘what we already know’ to present a coherent and balanced argument.
In their chapter, Drucker and Stanworth provide research on employment agencies, and assess whether these labour market intermediaries fulfil a repre-sentational role for atypical employees. They conclude that they do with regard to individual grievances. However, collective representation is virtually nonexis-tent with agencies ultimately driven by a client/commercial motive and not worker representation. In the following chapter, Abbott provides similar insights from the CAB as a representational intermediary. If anything, the CAB’s fourfold in-crease in employment advice is testimony to the extent of the representation gap in contemporary society. Equally interesting is their potential impact as a represen-tative intermediary. Not only does the CAB have a high success rate representing clients at Employment Tribunals, but Abbott makes a persuasive argument that, otherwise, employer actions would remain unchallenged. A key issue is raised as to whether the CAB ‘competes’ with or ‘complements’ the trade unions. It is concluded that they complement the unions by filling a vacuum created by union decline and absence at the workplace.
the state of play regarding thefutureof worker representation. This could have been used as an opportunity to re-engage with the models and debates considered in chapter 1.
TONYDUNDON
NATIONALUNIVERSITY OFIRELAND, GALWAY
PUTTINGWORK IN ITSPLACE: A QUIETREVOLUTION
By Peter Meiksins and Peter Whalley. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2004, xiv+188 pp., US$19.00 (paperback)
Hardly a professional worker in the USA has not experienced the effects of competing and demanding times in their daily lives. Indeed, most professionals in the USA have heard various terminologies used to describe this situation. Terms such as work/family conflict, time squeeze, spillover, balancing work and family, and even greedy institutions characterise academic and popular press discussions about time demands professional workers face in their daily lives today. The scenario these discussions often portray is one of middle-class professional workers trapped within the jaws of the work-and-family time bind.
Meiksins and Whalley, however, advance the hypothesis that some profession-als actually have found a way to ‘customise’ their scheduled work time in order to relieve the grip of these two opposing forces. They present observations and testimonials from interviews with 127 professional (technical) workers who have chosen to scale back their commitment to full-time paid labour. The sample of scaled-back professional workers includes 65 individuals who worked part-time and 62 who worked as independent contractors. The workers were employed as engineers, software developers and information technology specialists. During the interviews, the 99 women and 28 men enthusiastically told their stories about tak-ing control over their time commitments to employers and families. Importantly, nearly all respondents had full-time working partners.
However, as Meiksins and Whalley theorise from the stories, these individuals represent the beginning of a potential social movement, what the authors term ‘a quiet revolution’, involving professional workers taking control over their daily lives. The central thrust of the analysis focuses on what some have identified as the career-versus-job dilemma. This dilemma more often than not is thought to plague professional women who, after having children, face the decision of finding a job that offers a flexible schedule with fewer hours. Often, research suggests that this flexibility comes with fewer opportunities for career advancement. As Meiksins and Whalley describe this dilemma, it represents potentially a major change in the life course of women because the opportunities for more flexible work hours overwhelmingly are found in part-time jobs; jobs that stereotypically have been dubbed ‘career dead ends’.
individuals, career ladders and internal labour markets of employers appear to be of little interest, as they rarely mention an aspiration to move up the corporate chain of command. Rather, practicing the labour process associated with their technical craft and staying abreast of new developments in their specific field give meaning and value to most of these individuals.
Meanwhile, these quiet revolutionaries are cutting back their work sched-ules to accommodate the time demands of their family commitments and the other commitments in their personal lives. The authors offer various testimo-nials to indicate that these scaled-back professional workers are not pouring all their surplus time into childcare and grocery shopping. Instead, they are por-trayed as striking a balance between those responsibilities and personal activities, such as volunteer work, dance lessons, graduate school, travel and recording rock music.
Although both the part-time workers and independent contractors gain flex-ibility by getting off the cycle of the traditional work week, they, like so many full-time professional workers, experience a felt need to engage in unpaid work in order to be effective in their jobs. Frequent references are made by and attributed to these individuals as needing to work hard or be visibly present to avoid giving the impression of being less than fully committed to the job site. They maintain their ‘face time’ largely through the importation of communication technologies, such as email, cell and land phones and the internet. Communication technolo-gies enable part-time workers and independent contractors to remain ‘visible’ through electronic connectivity to such a degree that several individuals com-mented in their interviews that co-workers often thought they were full-time employees.
So, how can these individuals arrange deals with employers that enable them to customise their work schedules? According to Meiksins and Whalley, employers are willing to negotiate the flexible work arrangements for valuable employees who have a positive track record as full-time employees. And this, perhaps, is where the social movement concept comes into play. The authors state often that the people they interviewed were eager to tell their stories of successfully customising their paid work schedules. They tell of individuals who thought such arrangements were not possible because their employers did not openly support such practices, but then subsequently tutored other employees how to negotiate such arrange-ments. Importantly, the last chapter of the book titled ‘Customizing time: obsta-cles and strategies’ is a primer on how to begin taking control of one’s paid labour time.
we do know that highly educated and skilled professionals can scale back their primary paid working time without sacrificing their professional identities.
MARKWARDELL
PENNSYLVANIASTATEUNIVERSITY
HARDGROUND: UNIONS IN THEPILBARA
By Bradon Ellem. Pilbara Mineworkers Union, Port Hedland, 2004, 78 pp., $20.00
Like most of my colleagues, I am uncomfortable with one of the dictionary definitions of ‘academic’ which is ‘not of practical relevance’. It seems derogatory and unappreciative of our work. Yet, there is a grain of truth to this pejorative conceptualisation. We, as academics, research and write for a narrow world of more-or-less like-minded scholars and analysts. We have our secret terms and measures of excellence, and our writings seem to those outside our disciplines as not great scholarship, because we each define scholarship according to our own discipline’s secret codes and measures. It is even more difficult for those outside academia to read and understand our work. This is why this monograph by Bradon Ellem is such a beacon! Here is a publication that is readable, passionate and rigorous.Hard Groundis only 78 pages in length, with pictures and highlighted text in sidebars, but it tells a complex and fascinating story in a compelling way with virtually no loss in scholarly excellence.
In the book, Ellem traces unions’ responses to the deunionisation strategies of major companies in the iron ore mining region of the Pilbara in north Western Australia over the last 20 years, finishing in 2004. Chapter 1 sets the questions and directions of the book, in a way familiar to any scholar, but in clear colloquial prose. As with the rest of the book, the text is broken up with photographs.
Chapter 3 describes how the unions responded to BHP’s strategies in the late 1990s to move workers on to individual contracts, taking advantage of the WA state legislation. The monograph describes with great verve, the nature and timing of the individual contracts, the ways in which current pressures and the historical context interacted and the difficulties for workers in deciding whether to sign or not to sign. Within three months of the company sending out the contracts, 45% had signed. The unions began a series of integrated responses in the federal courts and arbitration commission, at the workplace and in the local communities. Inter-union divisions were eliminated, for a time at least, and the focus was back on what workers wanted.
Ellem’s story of this response is clear and lively, reminding readers in the process that unions and workers are not faceless entities, but real people with families and daily pressures beyond the workplace. They included the women who joined the successful community group ‘Action in Support of Partners’ (ASP). The founder of ASP is cited as saying they ‘all had concerns about our future in the Pilbara and worried about our children’s future and the future of working conditions we were to pass down to them. To unite and join forces with our men, gave us a sense of pride, worth, and a growing self-confidence ... participating in the Union
campaign’ (p. 40). By bringing alive the concerns and motives of the workers and their families, the reader is able to see why the workers and their families responded as they did.
Chapter 4 then turns to the other big company in the Pilbara, Rio Tinto and union responses to its efforts in 2001–2002 to replace the state-based individual contracts with S170LK agreements under theWorkplace Relations Act. The LK is a non-union collective agreement which must be voted on by all the employees in the company. The major focus in the chapter is on Rio Tinto at Hamersley, where the workers, much to the surprise of the company, voted strongly against an LK agreement. This was not so much a pro-union vote, but rather a signal of anti-company attitudes. Over the previous few years, workers had seen the anti-company move from a cooperative model of management to one in which a churning man-agement team changed processes, shifts and hours of work unilaterally, whereas at the same time developing new mines where the workers would be separated by time and place from the local communities. In contrast, as Ellem demonstrates, the workers were not particularly enamoured of the unions either. In response to these views, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and unions covering Hamersley began working together to form a new body, the Pilbara Mineworkers Union (PMU), a non-registered grass-roots organisation which began a process of union renewal.
Chapter 5 begins with an overview of continuing company efforts to achieve a free hand into the twenty-first century. The federal industrial relations legislation was significant. Companies could insist on Australian Workplace Agreements for all new employees, so that eventually union presence could be eroded away wholly. In the meantime, companies were also using other strategies to strengthen their control, such as increasing use of contractors, and Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) workforces which were of such concern to the Pilbara families who could foresee their communities becoming ghost towns.
the Pilbara Sustainability Taskforce which sought to articulate community unity, and highlight and lobby for the Pilbara to be seen as a ‘family place, a social setting—not just a bunch of holes in the ground for overseas mills’ (p. 63). Mean-while, and amid considerable debate, activists were arguing for greater breadth of union membership, including those who had signed individual contracts. The idea was that in the changing social, political and market environments, new forms of union membership would be apt to the changing context—and in the Pilbara, a new local union seemed to be the most appropriate. However, as Ellem shows, up to 2004, this had met with only a modified success because, although the ACTU and local unionists agreed on the need for new forms of collectivities, traditional unionism still held sway and the PMU seemed sidelined. Nevertheless, Ellem concludes with a note of hope for the newest unionism.
Because it is lucid and lively, and has pictures,Hard Groundis good reading for the non-academic reader. This is particularly so because Ellem, seemingly effortlessly, embeds in the story, events and processes in the wider political, legal, social and market contexts which are so central to understanding what influenced managers’ and workers’ decisions.
This is not an objective book—Ellem clearly sides with the unions, the local Pilbara workers in particular. Indeed, the PMU published this monograph.Hard Groundis not flawless. A better map would have been useful. The assumption that readers actually know the location of the Pilbara is probably only partly correct. As well the regional map which is provided could have been amended to get rid of some of the detail which is irrelevant to the story and had added detail such as the scale—or even just some road or rail distances—to understand the immenseness of the Pilbara. Also, some readers may find the flowing colloquial prose difficult—they would perhaps prefer secret academic language. However, this is not an academic book, but rather readily accessible scholarship which is greatly needed. Even so, some terms were unfamiliar to me. I would like to send this monograph to colleagues overseas, and I am sure they will need a glossary of some Australian colloquial terms to understand words like ‘blues’ and ‘odds on to get up’. Having said that, one of the book’s great strengths is its lucid and lively language. The only way in which this book is academic—in any sense of the term is that the good scholarship underpinning it is very evident. I would recommend Hard Groundvery highly.
DIANAKELLY
UNIVERSITY OFWOLLONGONG
WORTHFIGHTING FOR: THEMEMOIRS OFRAYGIETZELT, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THEFEDERATEDMISCELLANEOUSWORKERSUNION OF AUSTRALIA, 1955–1984
By Ray Gietzelt. Federation Press, Sydney, 2004, xiv +217 pp., $30.00
(paperback)
to a large, prospering and technically competent union of more than 122 000 members at the time of Gietzelt’s retirement.
Although inevitably to some degree subjective, the publication of personal ac-counts, anecdotes and pen portraits of friends and foes can sometimes provide more readable and interesting accounts than the more conventional academic trade union history. Thus, Trotsky could inform his readers that the pianola was Stalin’s favourite instrument: ‘but a machine, like a pianola, cannot replace human creative power’ (seePortraits, Political and Personal, 1977). Some Australian ana-logues include Boyd’sInside the BLF(1991); W.G. Spence’sAustralia Awakening (1909) and T. Bull’sLife on the Waterfront(1998).
Of course, the book accords Ray Gietzelt, his leadership group, and rank-and-file supporters much of the credit for this transformation. But many disinterested observers would agree with this assessment. There can be little doubt that, par-ticularly in the area of blue-collar industrial relations, the FMWU led the way in the employment of skilled research staff and negotiators, a comprehensive system of involved job delegates, up-to-date federal and state awards and membership services.
The key to Gietzelt’s success lay in a number of interrelated strategies: hard-hitting collective bargaining, insisting on sticking to the terms of an agreement once reached, skilful and tactical use of the arbitration system, while not becom-ing reliant on it and a vigorous program of amalgamation with smaller unions. As the writer says, ‘we set about to convince our members and potential members of the need to adopt a militant and progressive industrial policy based on collec-tive bargaining...we gave priority to those industries where we had significant
numbers of members and where we could use our strength’. This still contains implications for unions today.
Some of the more colourful aspects of these three decades of the FMWU’s role include the campaigns against an individualised incentive system in the paint industry, ending the daily pick up ‘bull’ system for waterfront members, the formidable task of establishing a union base in the Northern Territory, the at-tempted right-wing takeover of the leftist union in the 1970s, and the dilemma of covering and defending uranium mine workers. The story is more dramatic by the account of a ‘mole’ high in the federal office of the union, providing information to internal and external opponents of the leadership.
In addition to this important account of a major union, Gietzelt recounts his extensive involvement at the highest levels of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the pivotal formation of a centrist block to support the succession of R.J. Hawke to that umbrella body’s presidency in 1969, and Gietzelt’s determined, loyal support of legal and political allies—Lionel Murphy and Neville Wran.
Gietzelt never aspired to political office. His ironclad commitment to the union was too strong. But, in an understated and factual manner, this book demonstrates his impressive and positive contribution to Australia’s industrial relations and public affairs.
