This article uses union survey data to examine the incidence and work- related consequences of technical change in the Australian printing industry during the mid-1980s. It attempts to explain inter-plant variations in the incidence of technical change and differences in union influence on technical-change issues. The finding that the union has not given technical change a great deal of attention is explained by the incremental and mainly benign effects that new technology has had on existing printing industry employees. However, this approach is questionable and is changing in the light of strategies developed by the Australian union movement in response to emerging problems.
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