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Voice and resistance: Coalminers’ struggles to represent their health and safety interests in Australia and New Zealand 1871–1925

Author

Listed:
  • David Walters

    (Cardiff University, UK)

  • Michael Quinlan

    (The University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia)

Abstract

The activism of coalmining unions in Australia, the UK, the USA and elsewhere securing improvements in safety including better legislation in the 19th and 20th centuries, has been widely researched and acknowledged. However, a relatively neglected aspect of this history was a campaign to secure worker inspectors (check-inspectors). These began in coalmining a century before similar measures were introduced for workers more generally as part of overhauling occupational health and safety laws in the 1970s/1980s. We document this struggle for mine safety in Australia and New Zealand, and the activities of check-inspectors in the period to 1925. Notwithstanding strong opposition from coal-owners and conservative governments, check-inspectors played an important role in safeguarding coalminers and improving the regulatory oversight of coalmines. Check-inspectors not only gave coalminers a ‘voice’ in OHS, but they also provided an exemplar of the value and legitimacy of worker’s ‘knowledge activism’. This system remains. Furthermore, the struggle is relevant to understanding contemporary debates about collective worker involvement in occupational health and safety. JEL Codes: J28, J51, J81

Suggested Citation

  • David Walters & Michael Quinlan, 2019. "Voice and resistance: Coalminers’ struggles to represent their health and safety interests in Australia and New Zealand 1871–1925," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 30(4), pages 513-531, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:30:y:2019:i:4:p:513-531
    DOI: 10.1177/1035304619877588
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David Walters & Michael Quinlan & Richard Johnstone & Emma Wadsworth, 2016. "Cooperation or resistance? Representing workers' health and safety in a hazardous industry," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 379-395, July.
    2. David Walters & Michael Quinlan, 2019. "Representing workers on occupational safety and health: some lessons from a largely ignored history," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 399-414, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Coalmining; ILO155; safety inspection; union voice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions

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