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Leo Hawkins

Power Conflict and Control in Australian Trade Unions edited by Kathryn Cole

by •
May 1982, no. 40
Leo Hawkins reviews 'Power Conflict and Control in Australian Trade Unions' edited by Kathryn Cole

Kathryn Cole’s book sets out by means of thirteen contributions to evaluate ‘two assertions about trade unions (which) are pervasive’. These are that they are very or too powerful, and that they are usually the aggressors in industrial disputes. Its conclusion is that unions are more sinned against than sinning, or, to paraphrase the words of Evelyn Waugh in Brideshead Revisited describing Lady Marchmain, ‘they are saintly without being saints’.

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