Placing Peak Union Purpose and Power: The Origins, Dominance and Decline of the Barrier Industrial Council

Abstract

This article examines the power and purpose of union peak bodies, focussing on one particularly powerful organisation, the Barrier Industrial Council in Broken Hill. We argue that the power and purpose of all such bodies is multi-dimensional, historically contingent and spatially specific. The most illuminating studies conceptualise peak bodies as agents of mobilisation, with power delegated by affiliates, and of economic and political exchange, with power derived from a ‘structural coupling’ with the state and capital. However, there is a third possible peak body purpose: social regulation and, specifically, the regulation of labour and commodity markets. This was a conspicuous activity of the Barrier Industrial Council, underpinned by success in mobilisation and exchange and by ‘place consciousness’. Understanding the variety of potential power sources holds the key to explaining not only why some peak bodies command more power than others but also why there is so much variation in peak union focus and behaviour.

Rethinking 'Regional Industrial Relations': Space, Place and the Social Relations of Work

“…They can also enhance our understanding of the conflicts that can emerge between union members in one workplace or locality and those in others. This literature also reminds us of the often complex 'internal' and 'external' factors behind the fonnation of explicitly spatial union confederations, including local peak union bodies (Ellem &Shields, 1996, 380-90, and2000a). Therefore, to appreciate more fully the spatial agency of workers and their unions, and the 'spatial fixes' they pursue, we need to recognise that unions themselves are inherently spatialised entities-embedded elements of the 'stretched out' social relations of work.…”

“…These were closures directed not just against outsiders but also against local married women and, as elsewhere, against those lacking formal trade qualifications. These closed labour markets were defined in terms of the space around the city and gender and skill within it (Ellem & Shields, 1999, 2000b.…”

Scaling labour

“…By this is meant the ideas about and also the discursive construction of social practices in particular places. It is implicitly or explicitly contextual, that is, comparing one place with others, material or imagined, and it is usually contested and contingent (see Ellem and Shields, 2001 for an earlier formulation). The company town and the union town are only the more obvious expressions of this.…”

Regional Union Response to Regional Restructuring: A Case Study of Union Agency

“…Further insight into the ultimate failure of its role as agent of exchange may be gained by examining the limits of agency. The concept of agency is emphasized in the examination of roles (Ellem and Shields, 2001;Briggs, 1999) but it also has constraints. It would appear that the SCLC's efforts were limited by the timing of its policies.…”