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Abstract

The years immediately after the Second World War witnessed over-full employment in the Australian economy. The workforce, backed by public opinion, sought to reap gains in employment conditions after years of restraint. High on the unions' official agenda was reform of the federal arbitration system, which dominated the wage-fixing process. In 1947 the ALP government amended the Conciliation and Arbitration Act. Although endowed with unprecedented constitutional and political authority, the Chifley government failed to meet the main expectations of its union constituents. The system remained centralized and dominated by a small bench of judges. Chifley's appointments to the bench failed to depart from the conservative norm. The Labor government's overwhelming motivation was to hold down wage costs and cushion the economy from the shock of industrial labour's newfound bargaining power.

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Shoring up the System: The ALP and Arbitration in the 1940s

Abstract

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