History

A Sense of Community

Historian Greg Patmore looks at labour-community coalitions in the Lithgow Valley between 1900 and 1932.

Since the 1970s economists and industrial relations academics, particularly in the United States, have focused on the impact of deindustrialisation on small towns and cities. Some are particularly interested in finding strategies that will assist unions in their efforts to stop corporations relocating plants to low wage/non-union sites not only in the United States but also offshore. One such strategy is labour-community coalitions.

Charles Craypo and Bruce Nissen, two American academics, have argued that unions have been most effective in dealing with corporations when they develop close alliances or coalitions with communities. They also found, however, that these coalitions were a rarity because community members are not only hostile towards the company that retrenches staff or relocates, but also in some instances blamed organised labour and high wages for the loss of employment.

There is also the problem that even where community members agree to oppose retrenchment or plant closure, they may disagree over the means of achieving their objectives. Even if these coalitions are unsuccessful in stopping plant closures and retrenchment, they allow unions a greater voice in situations where collective bargaining is not an alternative.

These `labour -community coalitions' are not a new phenomena. In the Lithgow Valley west of Sydney, there was co-operation between trade unions and the town's business and social elite during the early decades of this century. These coalitions were built upon the economic relationship between retailers and workers and also social interaction through community organisations such as sporting clubs. There was also a shortage of land in the Lithgow Valley available for housing, which meant that workers and the business elite lived in close proximity.

Labour leaders and the business elite generally supported the idea that Lithgow would become the `Birmingham of Australia'. Lithgow had the potential to become a major manufacturing centre with a significantly larger population. These leaders were also concerned with narrow economic base and the loss of industries such as copper refining and meat processing. The economic growth would benefit the town's businesses, increase revenue for the Lithgow Council and improve job security.

The business elite and labour leaders particularly focused on the iron and steel industry, which operated in Lithgow from the 1870s to 1931. In February 1904 Lithgow Council agreed to co-operate with the Eskbank Ironworkers' Association, which represented workers at the Lithgow Ironworks, and approached the Prime Minister to have a bonus on iron production. In 1909 H. Bladon of the Eskbank Ironworkers' Association and the local newspaper editor, representing a town committee, produced a four page pamphlet calling for the passage of a Bonus Bill by federal parliament. The federal government responded by introducing bounties for steel production in 1909.

When the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney foreclosed on the Lithgow Ironworks mortgage and retrenched most of its employees in December 1907, the Lithgow Council, the Eskbank Ironworkers' Association, the Western Miners' Union and Lithgow Progress Association participated in a public meeting and organised a deputation to the NSW Premier to obtain assistance. The Hoskins family subsequently purchased the Lithgow Ironworks.

This co-operation between town leaders and organised labour also extended to the Small Arms Factory (SAF), which was established by the Federal Government in 1912 to manufacture rifles. During the peak demand for rifles of the First World War, the number of employees engaged reached 1,378 in June 1917. With the end of the War the demand for rifles collapsed and employment declined.

During the 1920s the Lithgow Council, factory unions and leading citizens, such as the Bracey retailing family, all combined to fight retrenchment at the SAF by forming town committees, which sent deputations to the federal government in Melbourne and arranged meetings with relevant government ministers when they were in Lithgow. The local manager of the factory, who had managerial autonomy and close links with the town's business and social elite, supported the movement. He put forward the idea of `outside work' as a strategy to stop retrenchments. `Outside work' involved the Factory accepting non-military orders.

The manager's zeal for `outside work' led him in February 1930 to complain to the Minister for Defence about the failure of his immediate superiors in Melbourne to provide sufficient funds for this purpose. He was forced to resign for ignoring established Department of Defence Administrative procedures. While this movement did not prevent large scale retrenchments in the early 1920s, it did persuade several federal governments to adopt `outside work' with certain restrictions.

During the period of the Scullin Federal Labor Government such work helped to prevent further retrenchments and rationing as the Great Depression intensified.

References:-

C. Craypo and B. Nissen (eds.), Grand Designs. The Impact of Corporate Strategies on Workers, Unions and Communities, ILR Press, Ithaca, 1993.

G. Patmore, `Labour-Community Coalitions and State Enterprise: The Lithgow Small Arms Factory 1918-1932', The Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 39, no. 2, June 1997, pp. 218-243.

Associate Professor Greg Patmore teaches in the Department of Industrial Relations at the University of Sydney. He is a member of the Federal executive of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History and also of the Sydney Branch executive. He is currently the Editor of the Society's journal, Labour History.

   Contact History Editor, Dr Lucy Taksa

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