The Women Against Rape in War Collective’s protests against ANZAC Day in Sydney, 1983 and 1984

Non-refereed Memoir delivered at “Women Against Rape in War: Gallipoli to Coniston” Conference, UTS 29 August 201

Reviews

Reviews of Managing labour? essays in the political economy of Australian industrial relations, Unions in crisis and beyond: perspectives from six countries and Unions against capitalist? a sociological comparison of the Australian building and metal workers' union

Protest in Sydney - 1968: Counterculture, Protest, Revolution conference

Presentation by Meredith Burgmann to the conference held by the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Wollongong on 30 November 2018

A new concept of unionism: the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation, 1970-1974

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Macquarie University, Sydney, 1981.Degree conferred May 1982.Bibliography: pages 427-455.Introduction -- Chapter One. The background - Building industry employers and the building unions -- Chapter Two. The old concept of unionism -- Chapter Three. The 1970 margins strike -- Chapter Four. 1970 -- Chapter Five. 1971 -- Chapter Six. 1972 -- Chapter Seven. 1973 -- Chapter Eight. 1974 -- Chapter Nine. Women in the industry -- Chapter Ten. Economic, ideological and structural pre-conditions -- Chapter Eleven. The syndicalist tradition -- Chapter Twelve. Revolutionary unionism? -- Conclusion -- Appendix A: The fight for control 1951-1961 -- Appendix B: Consolidation 1961-1969 -- Appendix C: Federal-state relations in the A.B.L.F. 1961-1969 -- Bibliography.This thesis examines the activities of the NSW B.L.F. during the years 1970-1974, the period in which the Union's radical industrial and social policies - notably the introduction of the famous "green bans" - brought it national and even international attention. Few secondary sources exist for this subject, the research is based on a study of the Union's archives, other ephemeral material of the period, and extended interviews with participants in the events of the period. Part I describes the Union's history from 1951-1974, including a lengthy account of the Union's activities in support of the right of women to work in the building industry. This area is considered in special detail because it was one of the most remarkable aspects of the Union's "new concept of unionism". Part II considers theoretical questions raised by the material in Part I. It discusses the economic and ideological pre-conditions which enabled the NSW B.L.F. to emerge in the way it did. The B.L.F. experience is then placed in the framework of traditional syndicalism, particularly concentrating on the way the Union leadership transmitted its ideology. Marxist accounts of unionism are considered, especially Lenin's theories about containment and incorporation of trade unions. It is argued that the NSW B.L.F. overcame these factors which normally inhibit revolutionary unionism. The conclusion drawn is that in 1970-1974 the Union acted in a revolutionary fashion. Its green ban philosophy directly confronted capital, taking from the employer the right to decide what to build and where. Mass action by the membership physically defeated employer attempts to break the Union's bans. However in the existing climate of conservative Australian trade unionism and especially because of the lack of support of the other building unions, this situation could not last. A revolutionary union operating in a non-revolutionary situation cannot remain so. It can only draw back from its revolutionary stance (i.e. lift the green bans) or it can be destroyed. The NSW B.L.F. refused to alter its green ban philosophy, even under extreme pressure, and on 24 March 1975 it ceased to exist.1 online resource (cxxv, 455 pages

From equal pay to overcoming undervaluation : the Australian National Pay Equity Coalition 1988-2011

Australian feminists have struggled to define the International Labour Organisation’s Equal Remuneration Convention’ goal of gender pay equity and find a platform for achieving it. Approaches based on discrimination, or a male comparator, have proved unworkable. Networking nationally and internationally, the National Pay Equity Coalition (1988–2011) formulated many submissions to industrial tribunals and parliamentary inquiries. Early interventions argued the disadvantages to women of the decentralisation of bargaining in the 1990s, but following the failure of discrimination-based cases, this focus shifted. National Pay Equity Coalition submissions came to define the gender gap, not as one between women and male comparators, but as a recognition gap. They argued that indicators of a history of gender-based undervaluation should lead to a bias-free work value assessment. Bias lay in the distance between actual job demands and their characterisation in classification descriptions. It could be redressed by fuller recognition of the work value of feminised service roles. This approach to the recognition and remedy of undervaluation informed the 1998 NSW Pay Equity Inquiry and the NSW Equal Remuneration Principle, but is not recognised in federal labour law. No Equal Remuneration Principle yet applies in the federal jurisdiction which since 2009 has governed most Australian wage setting amidst growing social inequality