Worker Organisation in Building and Construction

The rapid expansion of civil construction, commercial building and housing after 1850 swelled the ranks of building workers. In Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide unionisation by stonemasons, bricklayers and carpenters built on colonial organisation stretching back decades aided by industrially experien...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inContesting Inequality and Worker Mobilisation pp. 154 - 180
Main Author Quinlan, Michael
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 2021
Edition1
Subjects
Mutual Insurance
Saturday Half Holiday
Strike Pay
Bacchus Marsh
Surry Hills
Railway Navvies
George St
NSCA
Port Adelaide
Unilateral Regulation
Emerald Hill
St Kilda
Craft Controls
Building Unions
Violating
Stony Rises
Railway Construction
Non-society Men
Footscray
Midday
Pipers
Wagga Wagga
Melbourne Trades Hall
Mount Gambier
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Summary:The rapid expansion of civil construction, commercial building and housing after 1850 swelled the ranks of building workers. In Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide unionisation by stonemasons, bricklayers and carpenters built on colonial organisation stretching back decades aided by industrially experienced immigrants. While governments controlled, railways construction was undertaken by private contractors/subcontractors using predominantly immigrant navvies. As now, multi-tiered subcontracting was associated with quality and safety problems along with hyper-exploitation of workers. Informal organisation by navvies sometimes encompassed multiple employers and, less frequently, short-lived unions like the Geelong-Ballarat Railway Labourers Committee, Jackson's Creek Railway Navvies Mutual Protection Society and Melbourne-Sandhurst Railway Navvies Mutual Protection Society.
ISBN:9780367861780
036786178X
0367537257
9780367537258
DOI:10.4324/9781003018971-7