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- Title
'Silent forms of coercion': Welfare Capitalism, State Labour Regulation and Collective Action at the Yarraville Sugar Refinery, 1890-1925.
- Authors
Fahey, Charles; Lack, John
- Abstract
From 1890 through the early decades of the twentieth century, the Colonial Sugar Refinery under the leadership of Edward Knox introduced a wide range of welfare measures including pensions, sickness benefits, company housing and company loans for houses. Through these measures Knox hoped to insulate his workforce from unions and state regulation of the labour market. However, his workforce lived and worked in industrial suburbs where they could compare their wages and conditions with workers who were in unions and were covered by awards. Such comparison became more acute during a period of wartime inflation when their wages fell behind neighbouring workers. When industrial unrest erupted in the western suburbs in 1917, labourers at the Yarraville sugar refinery threw in their lot with the strikers and joined the dispute. At the end of the dispute, strikers were forced to retire on pensions, and strikers were forced to repay company home loans. Edward Knox had overplayed his hand and shown that welfare measures were just 'silent forms of coercion'.Opposition to unions and state regulation of labour markets was no longer possible, and CSR was forced to deal with unions.
- Subjects
VICTORIA; AUSTRALIA; COLONIAL Sugar Refining Co.; INDUSTRIAL welfare; KNOX, Edward; HISTORY of industrial relations; SUGAR industry; STRIKES &; lockouts; LABOR unions
- Publication
Labour History, 2011, Issue 101, p105
- ISSN
0023-6942
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5263/labourhistory.101.0105