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Solidarity in the Nineties? An Analysis of the ACTU Blueprint and the Costa/Duffy Critique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Bradon Ellem
Bradon Ellem*
Affiliation:
School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour, University of NSW
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Abstract

Plans to restructure the trade union movement have received little critical analysis. The most striking exception to this appeared in the first issue of this journal where Costa and Duffy argued that amalgamation plans were ‘fatally flawed’. This perspective, although drawing out some problems with the ACTU’s program, is itself unsatisfactory because too much of its argument remains implicit and it relies on highly debatable assumptions. Like so much industrial relations debate in Australia, the arguments in and about union strategies are made more difficult because they proceed without reference to theory or history. The main burden of this article is, after a detailed analysis of the Costa and Duffy prescription, to show why this matters and to suggest some areas of detailed research.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , December 1991 , pp. 90 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1991

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