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Abstract

The Australian air pilots dispute of 1989-90 revealed, more starkly than any other dispute in recent history, the essential nature of the Australian system of industrial relations. It showed the system's fundamental reliance on legal coercion when consensus crumbles. It epitomized the dialectic between values encapsulated in notions of freedom of association and free collective bargaining, and the highly corporatist and egalitarian values pervading Australian society and politics. Analysis of the dispute shows that the law played a key role in its outcome and that the industrial relations system has become highly corporatist at the expense of fudamental international rights to freedom of association, free collective bargaining and the right to strike.

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From Consensus to Coercion: the Australian Air Pilots Dispute

Abstract

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