Why do Unions form Peak Bodies? The Case of the Barrier Industrial Council

Abstract

Despite the long history and continuing importance of peak union bodies in Australian industrial relations, there have been very few attempts to analyze, let alone theorize about, their development. This omission in the literature is particu larly striking in relation to the origins of such bodies. Those rare treatments that do examine the formation of peak union bodies are unsatisfactory; most either assume that such forms of unity are inevitable or point to external causes in a rather mechanistic way. We propose a model of peak union formation that com bines internal and external processes, emphasizing the connection between them. We argue that for any group of unions to form a peak body, a state of internal equilibrium must exist between the unions concerned, and that these unions must also be presented with a clear external threat or opportunity. The model is used here to explain the origins of one of the oldest continuous local peak bodies in Australia, the Barrier Industrial Council, but we suggest that the model has a general applicability.

Back to grass roots: Peak union councils and community campaigning

“…Peak union bodies are premised on cooperation among diverse unions (Tattersall, 2010: 7). They may be defined as ‘permanent inter-union organisations directed at furthering defined or assumed common interests or objectives by means of jointly determined strategies’ (Ellem and Shields, 1996: 377). Drawing on both Tattersall’s definition of community unionism and Ellem and Shields’ definition of peak union bodies, we define the LUCCs in our study as emerging groups of rank-and-file union members, operating under the auspices of Unions NSW, who engage with the communities in which members live and work to further commonly held objectives.…”

Peak Union Campaigning: Fighting for Rights at Work in Australia

“…In attempting to explain the origins and development of peak unions, Ellem and Shields argue that peak bodies emerge under very specific circumstances: with a perception of an immediate threat or opportunity to a set of unions in a particular space and where no one union could dominate others. Peak unions' subsequent development is shaped by: internal factors, notably the relative power of affiliates, how representative of unions the peak body becomes; and external ones, such as local political‐opportunity structures and new threats or opportunities (Ellem and Shields 1996, 2004b). Drawing on scholarship examining European ‘national union federations’, Briggs shows that such bodies have three ‘unique capacities’.…”

‘Lead Bonus Happy’: Profit‐Sharing, Productivity and Industrial Relations in the Broken Hill Mining Industry, 1925–83

“…Barrier Daily Truth, 22 January 1925; Richardson (1987): 26;Carroll (1986): 73. For the institutional background to the 1925 negotiations, see Ellem and Shields (1996): 390^407. 7 Indeed, after signing the agreement in April 1925, the BIC's founding president, E. P. O'Neill, a leading union moderate, remarked that`We have signed it like a girl getting marriedâ gainst her will'.…”