Review of Merritt's "Making of the AWU," and Spence's "History of the AWU."


Today I'm posting another 2 books that could be read in tandem.

Merritt's "Making of the AWU" is an academic account of the origins of the @awunion It starts by discussing the origins and experience of the squatters, followed by an account of the work involved in a Wool Shed (discussing the Shearers, and the shed hands or rouseabouts). It then goes into a thorough history of the unions early years (irritatingly it discusses the Amalgamated Shearers Union for most of it, though that's understandable). It's been a few years since I read this, but I remember Merritt discussing; the burr and the rabbit as the two main pests confronting the squatters, the experience of 'barrowing' or learning to shear, the general background of the Shearers (some being small farmers supplementing their income, some being urban workers, and some working as farm hands and builders labourers when the shearing season finished), and the violent reactions of some of the squatters to the union. Interestingly, he does not offer much on the 1891 strike, as he said it had been done too much by other authors.

William Spence founded the ASU, later the AWU, and he wrote his "History of the AWU" in 1911. It's also been a while since I finished this book, but I distinctly remember his colourful description of events, and long quotations from elsewhere. The "History" also contains it's share of racism that prevailed in the AWU at the time. I distinctly remember Spence discussing the "Bogus" Machine Shearers and Shedhands Union, claiming it was entirely funded by the squatters, employed paid organisers with a history of union busting, and didn't manage to recruit many workers (except know scabs). In this, we see history repeating in the bogus "Red Union" movement (which would be better named "Yellow Union"). Spence discusses that the AWU beat the bogus union by cementing itself as the real union on the ground in negotiating with the squatters, and ultimately leading a statewide Shearers strike. The courts accepted this reality, and registered the AWU instead of the MSU.
 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Corporate Class drain on economy, Productivity Commission Reveals

Image
  Corporate Class drain on economy, Productivity Commission Reveals 09-04-25 The Productivity Commission’s 2025 Bulletin has revealed that the Corporate Class is the most inefficient sector of the economy. While the productivity of most skilled Trades increased their productivity; the “Administration and Support Services Sector” has seen a decline in labour productivity over the same timeframe. The Productivity Commission’s Annual Bulletin (accessible here: https://www.pc.gov.au/ongoing/productivity-insights/bulletins/bulletin-2025/productivity-bulletin-2025.pdf ) reveals that the “Administration and Support Services” industry saw a decline in labour productivity. Meanwhile, Labour productivity in agriculture, construction, transport, and manufacturing increased. The Utilities industry saw labour productivity decline slightly. Despite this decline in corporate productivity, the ABS reveals that the industry saw the fourth largest wage rise in 2024 (see here: https://www...
Read more

Review of "The Big Book of Australian Folk Song."

Image
Got a copy of this classic. Its more of a reference book, than designed to be read cover to cover. It includes various folk songs from the colonial era until the 70s when it was published. It's a good addition to my few folk albums. I've got a signed copy of Text Egan's album "The Shearer's" from the faces of Australia series. I've also got a few of Redgum's albums downloaded, though that's unlikely to be in here because they came later (and a full discography of them would warrant a coffee table book of its own). I've also got a few of The Bushwackers' covers of the classics. Almost every agricultural profession has a "Lament" about the Hard Yakka and the poor food. The Shearer's, naturally, have countless songs, but the cane cutters have at least a few, with 2 versions of their "Lament."  
Read more

Attempt to organise Airtasker Fails; Scabs rampant on Platform

Image
In April 2024, I attempted to Unionise Airtasker. Airtasker is a gig economy platform that engages contractors to bid on customer's jobs advertised on the platform. As a former Airtasker worker, I know how bad the platform is. It is a race to the bottom in terms of wages and conditions. A few years ago (in 2020) I wrote an as yet unpublished essay comparing Airtasker to the infamous "Bull System," of casual labour. As part of this essay, I screenshotted various examples of jobs completed on Airtasker withing about 6 months of each other, demonstrating that Airtasker is is practice a race to the bottom. My investigation into Airtasker's standards exposed a completely unregulated market. Airtasker claims it is complying with its legal obligations, but it is clear to me that that are doing the bare minimum to cover their arses. For example, I uncovered numerous instances of renumeration below the Award Rates of the time.  There was an example of 8 hours "Landscape L...
Read more