Business and Labour
History Group

Professor Lucy Taksa was appointed Head of the Department of Business in the Faculty of Business and Economics at Macquarie University in August 2009. She has been Chair of the Board of State Records NSW since 2007 and is President of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History. She was a non-judicial member of the Equal Opportunity Division of the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal (and its predecessors) between 1996 and 2007 and of the Legal Services Division between 2003 and 2007.

Lucy is currently on the Editorial Boards of Labour History, the Journal of Transport History, International Review of Social History, Economic and Labour Relations Review, and Problems & Perspectives in Management. She has published on the management, labour and Occupational Health and Safety history; workplace culture and labour politics; gender and technological change; adult, technical and management education; migrant workers, EEO and diversity management; and the management and interpretation of industrial heritage. Her current research interests include: humour and traditional masculine workplace culture; women and leadership; and the impact of the new liberal agenda on tertiary education.

All are very welcome to attend.

In recent years Labor/Labour or Social Democratic Governments and business have been close allies in restructuring capitalist economies and increasing the influence of the market on economic life. This thematic section proposes to bring in researchers who are undertaking long-term studies of the relationship between social democratic governments and business from Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere.

• View Symposium Programme

The symposium is organised by the Business and Labour History Group, Faculty of Economics and Business, The University of Sydney and we acknowledge the financial support of the Faculty of Economics and Business, The University of Sydney. All enquiries regarding the symposium and the special thematic section of Labour History should be addressed to the thematic editors at g.gallop@econ.usyd.edu.au and g.patmore@econ.usyd.edu.au

All are very welcome to attend.

Abstract: The state of class consciousness of a section of workers is brought into relief by the pressures of industrial disputes. During disputes in Sydney in the 1943-1969 period for the Australian Journalists Association two conflicting trends emerge in the consciousness of their class position. Above award conditions and occupational interests caused the AJA to present a craft and sectional interest, effectively expressing their consciousness as workers in a fixed social position. At the same time, the use of work-ins, in the form of a Union substitute newspaper produced during strikes with the assistance of the Printers expressed a different consciousness of a position for journalists outside of the limitations of their then social position. Particular attention will be paid to the changing nature of work-in industrial action across the period, and the undermining of the work-in as a tactic and as the representation of a different social order, through institutionalisation and changed production techniques.

A light lunch is provided. Please RSVP to blhg@econ.usyd.edu.au by close of business on Monday 8 June so we can finalise numbers for catering.

All are very welcome to attend.

Jonathan is a visiting scholar in Work and Organisational Studies and his research interests including a history of refrigeration and the history of the Rockefeller Plan of employee representation.

Rainer Schlüter is in Sydney as Keynote Speaker at the Cooperative Progress Conference organised by the Cooperative Federation of NSW. He is one of the most influential and celebrated figures in the cooperative movement including the resurgent worker cooperative sector and burgeoning social enterprise movement in Europe. He will give a historical talk on "Trade Unions and Worker Cooperatives" with special reference to the synergy that could emerge in today’s economic climate between the two movements in tackling current business problems. Rainer will include a recent Survey of Social Dialogue and Cooperatives in Europe which included the trade unions.

Rainer Schlüter has been the Director of Cooperatives Europe and ICA Director for the European region since 2004. He was previously General Secretary of the European Confederation of Workers Co-operatives, Social co-operatives and Social and Participative Enterprises and General Delegate of the Coordinating Committee of European Cooperative Associations. Until recently he was President of the European Network of Cities and Regions for Social Economy and a Board member of the European Permanent Conference of Co-operatives, Mutual Societies, Associations and Foundations. Rainer has been a member and board member of several worker co-operatives and social economy enterprises and has consulted on enterprise creation and social innovation. His original studies were as a researcher and assistant in applied economics, environmental economics and cost-benefit analysis at the Free University of Brussels and later at the European Studies Institute/ULB. He is a regular exhibitor of sculpture.

Declining union membership raises the important issue of employer strategies aimed at reducing union presence in the workplace. Given the focus of Labour History editorial policy on examining 'union organising strategies' it is appropriate that we also analyse the 'union avoidance' and 'union- busting' activities of employers. This thematic section brings in researchers who are undertaking long-term studies of employer anti-union strategies from Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere.

• View Symposium Programme

The symposium is organised by the Business and Labour History Group, Faculty of Economics and Business, The University of Sydney and we acknowledge the financial support of the Faculty of Economics and Business, The University of Sydney. All enquiries regarding the symposium and the special thematic section of Labour History should be addressed to the thematic editors at either r.cooper@econ.usyd.edu.au or g.patmore@econ.usyd.edu.au

Labour History has now been listed on Thomson ISI and is currently being loaded up on JStore. It is a member of the History Co-operative.

SYMPOSIUM

Mirrored Histories: Consumption and Work in the Asia Pacific

Programme:

We wish to thank the Faculty of Economics and Business for their assistance in funding these activities.

SEMINAR

Backdoor Bankers: The Origins of Citigroup’s Australia Operations, 1916-1986

Harry Knowles, Greg Patmore and John Shields
Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies,
Faculty of Economics and Business,
The University of Sydney

The Business and Labour History Group, The University of Sydney invites you to attend a seminar presented by

Robin Archer
London School of Economics and Political Science

on his forthcoming publication:

Why is There No Labor Party in the United States?

» Further information about the seminar

The Business and Labour History Group, The University of Sydney invites you to attend two events presented by

Professor Joe Martin
Rotman School of Management
The University of Toronto

SEMINAR - Monday 10th March 2008

The Evolution of Capitalism in Canada and Australia in the 20th Century - lessons to be learned

and

SYMPOSIUM - Friday 14th March 2008

Why Business History is Important?

With commentaries by Nikola Balnave (UWS), Nicholas Cowell (Citibank), Chris Poullaos (Accounting), Chris Wright (WOS)

We wish to thank the Faculty of Economics and Business for their assistance in funding the visit by Joe Martin.

Consumption, Markets and Culture - Special Edition Call for Papers

Mirrored Histories: Consumption and Work in the Asia Pacific

Date: Wednesday, 2 April 2008

» Further information

SYMPOSIUM - Friday 8th February 2008

Honouring Bob Gollan and Eric Fry

Darlington Centre, The University of Sydney

In October 2007 two of the great stalwarts of Australian labour history, Eric Fry, and Bob Gollan passed away. They were founders of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History and played key roles in the launching and growth of the journal, Labour History. They were also mentors to many labour historians both at the Australian National University and elsewhere. In their own right they made significant contributions to the Australian labour history through numerous books and articles. This symposium brought together several leading Australian labour historians to remind us and celebrate their contribution to Australian labour history. The covenor of the symposium was Peter Love (Swinburne University of Technology). The speakers were John Merritt (colleague at the ANU and a former editor of Labour History), Susan Magarey (The University of Adelaide) and Verity Burgmann (The University of Melbourne). Their tributes will form the basis of papers to published as part of a special tribute to Bob and Eric in the May 2008 issue of Labour History.