Abstract
The industrial relations processes of the Latrobe Valley are possibly best known for the lengthy State Electricity Commission of Victoria maintenance workers strike of 1977. This paper examines a less well known but potentially more significant stop page, which involved a partial withdrawal of labour by power station operators in June 1980. The significance of this stoppage is twofold. It highlights the vulnerability of employers in technologically advanced industries to industrial action by small groups of elite workers. Further, it brings into focus an unusual aspect of inter-union eonflict. In this case, the operators attempted to use a particular union as a vehicle to achieve conditions superior to those generally prevailing in the Commission. Analysis of the causes of this dispute leads to the general conclusion that such occur rences are likely to be repeated given that the settlement failed to address more than the symptoms of the underlying problem.
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