Industrial and political history

    Press/Media: Expert Comment

    Period12 Apr 2023 → 16 Apr 2024

    Media contributions

    2

    Media contributions

    • Title Who screwed millennials out of a secure job? Part 4
      Media name/outletThe Guardian
      Duration/Length/Size1 hour
      Country/TerritoryAustralia
      Date16/04/24
      DescriptionWhy is the best way to get a pay rise to get a new job? Millennials have entered the workforce at a time when work is precarious: a third of Australia’s workforce are employed as casuals, freelancers or on short-term contracts. And wages have been heading south for the best part of a decade. But how did we get here?

      In this episode of Who Screwed Millennials? Jane Lee and Matilda Boseley talk to chief political correspondent Paul Karp, ACTU secretary Sally McManus, assistant national secretary of the MUA Thomas Mayo, former industrial relations consultant Paul Houlihan, labour history academic Geraldine Fela, ACTU president Michele O’Neil, former outworker Nguyet Nguyen and author Emma Do to examine the successive decisions over four decades that got us here
      Producer/AuthorPresented by Jane Lee and Matilda Boseley. Series producer Miles Herbert.
      URLhttps://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/audio/2024/apr/16/who-screwed-millennials-out-of-a-secure-job-part-4-podcast
      PersonsGeraldine Fela
    • TitleThe Waterfront Dispute 25 Years On
      Media name/outletABC
      Duration/Length/Size60 mins
      Country/TerritoryAustralia
      Date12/04/23
      DescriptionTwenty-five years ago this month, one of the most dramatic moments in Australian industrial history occurred with the waterfront dispute, better known as the Patrick's dispute. Backed by the Howard government and its new workplace laws, Patrick's Stevedore company sought to remake the industrial relations landscape on the docks and beyond, a push to improve productivity.

      Foreign-trained mercenaries, balaclava clad security guards with rottweilers, picket lines, and as then Industrial relations minister Peter Reith once described it, "old-fashioned biffo on the docks" were the methods used. Managing director of Patrick's, Chris Corrigan, with prime minister John Howard and the Industrial Minister Peter Reith in one corner, the Maritime Union of Australia with John Coombs and Paddy Crumlin leading officials and ACTU heavyweights Bill Kelty and Greg Combet in the other. Both sides claim victory two decades on. But what ramifications still reverberate from the dispute?

      Prof Shae McCrystal, Labour Law Expert and professor of labour law at the University of Sydney, with Dr Geraldine Fela, a historian at Macquarie University, who is writing a book on the dispute, joined Philip Clark to discuss the history of the conflict, and what it's meant for Australian IR and workplace law.
      URLhttps://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/nightlife/the-waterfront-dispute-25-years-on/102216124
      PersonsGeraldine Fela