The 1977 Latrobe Valley SECV Maintenance Workers' Strike

Abstract

Although this is an attempt to partly fill the gap in case studies on strikes in Australia, our findings, we feel, are also important for the historical record. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section provides a background to the dispute and attempts to identify the major industrial issues which cul minated in the 1977 Latrobe Valley maintenance workers' strike. The second section examines the immediate causes of the dispute, whilst the final section outlines the events during the strike and attempts to locate the major areas of disputation, including procedural difficulties. Much of the information con tained in this paper stems from personal interviews (on tape) and notes and papers of both shop stewards and SECV officers.