Racial Conflicts in the Australian Automotive Industry in the 1950s: Production Line Workers, the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation and Shop Floor Organisation

Labour History

Volumn , Issue 76, 1999, Pages 20-40

  Tierney, Robert ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 77953265566     PISSN: 00236942     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3828/27516626     Document Type: Article

References (82)

1. See for instance Robert Tierney, 'Migrants and class in postwar Australia' in Rick Kuhn and Tom O'Lincoln (eds), Class and Class Conflict in Australia, Longman, Melbourne, 1996, ch. 6.
2. Constance Lever-Tracy, and Michael Quinlan, A Divided Working Class: Ethnic Segmentation and Industrial Conflict in Australia, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1988, pp. 316-317.
3. June M. Hearn, 'Migrants and trade unions in Australia' in Des Storer (ed.), Ethnic Rights, Power and Participation, Clearing House on Migration Issues, Ecumenical Migration Centre and Centre for Urban Research and Action, Melbourne, 1975, p.69.
4. Constance Lever-Tracy, 'A new Australian working class leadership: The case of Ford Broadmeadows', in Gill Bottomley and Marie de Lepervanche (eds), Ethnicity, Class and Gender in Australia, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1984, p. 129.
5. Many Latin American migrants have been radicalised by struggles against dictatorship in their countries of origin. See further: Santina Bertone and Gerard Griffin, Immigrant Workers and Trade Unions, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1992, p. 87.
6. Drawing on his experiences as a trade union official, Con George contends that because they work 'in a state of voracious exploitation and total alienation', non-English speaking background workers constitute a 'dormant industrial volcano'. Con George, 'Migrants and Australian Unions' in Storer (ed.), Ethnic Rights, Power and Participation, p. 23.
7. Tierney, 'Migrants and class in postwar Australia' pp. 103-109.
8. Lever-Tracy and Quinlan, A Divided Working Class, p. 268.
9. Mark Peel, Good Times, Hard Times: the past and the future in Elizabeth, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1995, p. 140.
10. Lucas Nicolaou, Australian Unions and Immigrant Workers, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1991, pp. 129-32,135-38,176-78,181-82, 265-69.
11. Bertone and Griffin, Immigrant Workers and Trade Unions, pp. 62-64. They add that about two-thirds of the officials interviewed had acknowledged the existence of racism/discrimination within their union, with about half of these stating that it was generally confined to the workplace level. The other half believed that racist attitudes were present either within the branch office only, that is among full-time officials, or both in the office or workplace (p. 65).
12. George Zangalis, 'Our Unions or Theirs', in Storer (ed.), Ethnic Rights, Power and Participation, p. 28.
13. Robert Tierney, The Australian Automotive Industry 1939-1965: a sociological study of some aspects of state intervention, managerial control and trade union organisation, PhD thesis, School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University, 1991, ch. 8.
14. Robert Tierney, The Australian Automotive Industry 1939-1965: a sociological study of some aspects of state intervention, managerial control and trade union organisation, PhD thesis, School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University, 1991, p. 215.
15. Marianne Debouzy, 'In search of working class memory: some questions and tentative assessment', History and Anthropology, vol. 2,1986, pp. 261-82.
16. see also Ian Watson, 'Class memory: an alternative approach to class identity', Labour History, no. 67, November 1994, pp. 23-41.
17. Personal interview with George Zangalis, 4 September 1994.
18. Personal interview with Theo Zianas, 14 December 1997.
19. Personal interview with Ted Gnatenko, 29 August 1994.
20. John Arrowsmith and George Zangalis, The Golden Holden: General Motors in Australia, International Bookshop, Melbourne, 1965, p. 46.
21. J. Jupp, Arrivals and Departures, Cheshire-Lansdowne, Melbourne, 1966, p. 45.
22. N. Randazzo and M. Cigler, The Italians in Australia, AE press, Melbourne, 1987, p. 187.
23. Personal interview with Charlie Startari, 14 December 1986.
24. Tierney, The Australian Automotive Industry 1939-1965, ch. 9.
25. Susan Marsden, A History of Woodville, The Corporation of the City of Woodville, Woodville, 1977, p. 250.
26. Personal interview with Charlie Startari, 14 December 1986.
27. Personal interview with Ted Gnatenko, 29 August 1994.
28. Personal interview with Andreas Kyriacou, 12 September 1994.
29. S. Alomes, M. Dober, and D Hellier, The Social Context of Postwar Conservatism', in A. Curthoys and J. Merritt, Australia's First Cold War, vol. 1: Society, Communism and Culture, Allen and Unwin, North Sydney, 1984, p. 14.
30. Tierney, The Australian Automotive Industry 1939-1965, ch. 3, 9,10.
31. Tierney, The Australian Automotive Industry 1939-1965., p. 89.
32. Personal interview with Bill Boundy (former superintendent of the body-in-white welding shops at both Woodville and Elizabeth ' the '50s), 17 November 1990.
33. For instance, occasionally the body-in-white welders would drop a bolt or a cog into the floor level chain line, thereby immobilising the jig trucks.
34. Tierney, The Australian Automotive Industry 1939-1965, ch. 3.
35. Personal interview with Ross Madley, 27 November 1990.
36. Personal interviews with Bob Miller (now the Manager of Manufacturing Engineering at the company's Elizabeth plant) 3 August and 6 September 1990. Miller is currently Manager of Manufacturing Engineering at General Motors-Holden's at Elizabeth.
37. Con Rod Fred, Assernbly Line, 10 October 1962, pp. 1-2, George Smith personal papers (held by Sol Marks).
38. Personal interview with Bert Davey, 16 September 1986.
39. Lever-Tracy and Quinlan, A Divided Working Class, p. 274.
40. Interview with Jack Bennett, 8 December 1985. During the '50s and '60s, Bennett worked as a tradesman coach-builder in the South Australian railway workshops. He became aware of the incident through what he termed the 'VB shop steward grapevine'. He could not provide further details of the event.
41. Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, Dispute no. 318 of 1948. Transcript of Evidence, Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation and others and the Vehicle Manufacturers' Association of Australia, General Case, vol. 4, p. 1164.
42. Personal interview with Frank Campagnola, 20 October 1989.
43. The Catholic Social Studies Movement (the forerunner of the National Civic Council) proclaimed that they had infiltrated the Federation. The Movement believed that they had 'made a clean sweep and gained full control' of the Victorian branch and 'secured and strengthened the power of the moderates in the New South Wales branch'. The National Civic Council held a firm grip over the Federation in New South Wales during and beyond the 1950s, however in Victoria it gradually surrendered control to the left. Unsorted papers, Alan Alfred Wilson Collection, MS2566, Australian National Library, Manuscript Archives.
44. Malcolm Rimmer, 'Union shop floor organisation', in G.W. Ford and D. Plowman (eds), Australian Unions: an Industrial Relations Perspective, Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1983, p. 134.
45. Minutes of the State Advisory Committee, 25 August 1949, Trades Hall Geelong, Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation (Victorian branch) collection, University of Melbourne Archives (hereafter UMA).
46. Memorandum of agreement between General Motors-Holden's Ltd and the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation (South Australian branch), Box: 'Vehicle Builders, Victorian branch, Arbitration Material', 1930s-1960s, First Accession, UMA.
47. Rules of the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation (New South Wales Branch), 1950, p. 44, Vehicle Builders Employees Federation, New South Wales Branch, Sydney Office.
48. Personal interview with Bill Taylor, 16 May 1988 (formerly shop steward at British Motor Corporation's Zetland plant and until recently New South Wales Secretary of Vehicle Builders employees' Federation. The union's old rule books are difficult to track down, hence it is often impossible to ascertain the precise year in which a rule was modified or revoked. But this duty did not appear in any of the scattered Federation rule books of the late 1950s.
49. Report of the New South Wales Council of Railway Workshops, undated, Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation, New South Wales Branch Archives, filed with a number of documents printed around the late '50s and early '60s. Affiliated with the Council were 27 railway workshop organisations whose aim was to 'unite sections of [railway] workers who previously were separated on the job by divisions between Unions' (see p.3). At the time, only a small proportion of the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation members were employed on the railways. Nevertheless in February 1961 the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation condemned the New South Wales Council of Railway Workshops on the basis that Communist Party members were active inside them and a 'disruptive' influence within the railway unions. The New South Wales branch of the Federation began to feel very threatened when it was discovered, also in 1961, that a number of 'small, though highly organised Red Cells' were developing at the General Motors-Holden's Pagewood and British Motor Corporation's Zetland operations. These communist shop committees were trying 'to engender discontent among union members with their elected officials by insinuating that they (were)... not doing their jobs properly nor working in the best interests of the rank and file'. These insinuations were outlined in a Communist leaflet called The Diff, distributed in the car plants. See also The Vehicle Builder, February 1961, p. 1.
50. The Vehicle Builder, May 1964, p. 1.
51. Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, Principal Registry, Melbourne, Archives Exhibits, Dispute no. 318 of 1948, Transcript of Evidence, op cit, vol. 1, pp. 152,153, vol. 2. p. 442.
52. Memorandum of Agreement between General Motors-Holden's Ltd, and the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation (South Australian Branch), Section 4(a) and 4(d), Box: 'Vehicle Builders, Victorian Branch, Arbitration Material, 1930s-1960s, First Accession, UMA.
53. Since early this century, the Constitution of the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation and of its forerunner, the Coach, Motor Car, Tram Car, Waggon Builders, Wheelwrights, and Rolling Stock Makers' Employees Federation of Australia (also known as the Coachmakers Employees' Federation), has been as follows: 'The Federation shall consist of an unlimited number of persons... engaged in, or usually engaged in the process, trade or business connected with or incidental to the manufacture, assembly or repairing of carriages, carts, waggons, trucks, tram cars, motor cycles, side cars, aircraft and other vehicles used in air transit and all other vehicles or part thereof and whether in wood and/or metal and/or other material'. Since 1909, when the New South Wales Industrial Tribunal determined that iron and steel waggons ought to be included in the Coachmaking Board instead of the Boilermaker's Board, a number of serious demarcation disputes occurred between the Coachmakers' Employees Federation/Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation and the various craft unions involved in the industry. The craft unions challenged the legal validity of the Constitution by disputing the definition of motor cars, of tram cars etc. Anonymous, The evolution ofthe industry, undated, pp. 1-2, Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation, New South Wales branch, Archives; The Vehicle Builder, November 1961, p. 3.
54. Personal interview with Ted Gnatenko, 11 December 1986.
55. Frances Baldwin points out that in the '70s, General Motors-Holden's, among other companies, would resort to hardline tactics to discipline militant shop stewards and to break-up shop floor organisation. These included physically isolating them as much as possible in the workplace from the union membership, assigning them to the worst jobs, dismissing them and so on. She adds that militant stewards 'were never welcomed by the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation leadership (in South Australia) and most often were abandoned by the union when they were disciplined or dismissed by the employer'. Frances M. Baldwin, Industrial Democracy in South Australia in the 1970's, MA Thesis, Department of Politics, University of Adelaide, 1984, p. 141 (see also pp. 136,143-144,205-ftn 27).
56. Personal interview with Ted Gnatenko, 11 December 1986. In 1972 Milton McCarney, then the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation's New South Wales Secretary, wrote a 4,000 word article for the Journal of Industrial Relations about the responsibilities of the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation steward. Not once did he refer to the need for stewards to convene meetings to discuss matters of concern to members. Milton P. McCarney 'Plant Level Relationships: The Shop Steward', TheJournal ofIndustrial Relations, vol. 14, no. 3, September 1972, pp. 272-281.
57. Personal interview with Bill Taylor, 16 May 1988.
58. Personal interview with Albert Crump, 7 January 1998
59. Personal interview with George Zangalis, 3 October 1998;
60. personal interview with Sol Marks, 17 December 1998. Marks was a shop steward at Ford Broadmeadows (initially with the Amalgamated Engineering Union) from his recruitment in November 1962 until his retirement in the mid-1980s. According to him, shop floor activity at the Ford Broadmeadows plant was virtually absent prior to his employment.
61. Tierney, The Australian Automotive Industry 1939-1965, pp. 342-347
62. Personal interview with Albert Crump, 7 January 1998.
63. See also Tierney, The Australian Automotive Industry 1939-1965, pp. 300,324-340
64. Personal interview with Albert Crump, 7 January 1998.
65. Tom O'Lincoln, Into the Mainstream: the Decline of Australian Communism, Stained Wattle Press, 1985, Westgate, pp. 98-99.
66. Personal interview with Albert Crump, 6 January 1998.
67. Personal interview with Bert Davey, 9 December 1998.
68. Quoted in The Guardian, 13 February 1958, p. 7.
69. Quoted in The Age, 14 February 1958, p. 1.
70. On the same day, Chamber President Daniel Scott stated that, 'No person has any right to use another person's property for any purpose without permission'. Quoted in The Guardian, 13 February 1958, p. 3.
71. The Guardian, 20 February 1958, p. 8.
72. Personal interview with Bert Davey, 9 December 1998.
73. The Guardian, 20 February 1958, p. 8.
74. The Age, 15 February 1958, p.3.
75. 'Strikers and their wives [were] busy interviewing callers, sending out finance collection sheets, bundling up leaflets, stacking food parcels. At a table, the Committee men [were] in constant session - planning tactics, organising meetings, writing propaganda and discussing developments'. The Guardian, 20 February 1958, p. 8.
76. The Age, 14 February 1958, p. 1.
77. The Guardian, 13 March 1958, p.6.
78. Personal interview with Bert Davey, 9 December 1998.
79. The Guardian, 13 March 1958, p. 6.
80. Personal interview with Alfred Crump, 6 January 1998.
81. Personal interview with Bert Davey, 9 December 1998.
82. Personal interview with Theo Zianas, 9 January 1998.