Producers, Processors and Unions

The Meat Producers Board and Labour Relations in the New Zealand Meat Industry, 1952–1971

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20437473
AutoresBruce Curtis (0000-0002-0275-7731, University of Auckland), James Reveley (0000-0002-3004-7630, University of Wollongong)
Año2001
Volumen41
Número2
Páginas135-158
Fecha de publicación2001-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAustralian Economic History Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0004-8992 • E-ISSN: 1467-8446
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-8446.00079
OpenAlexW1996016684
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2

In New Zealand, the historical trend towards the rational‐capitalistic transformation of agriculture was forestalled in part by producer boards, institutions that were intended to operate in the collective interests of farmers. Recently, there has been renewed interest both in the economic effects of the boards and in the role of farmers themselves within New Zealand's unique arbitral system of industrial relations. This paper bridges these areas of research by examining the influence of the Meat Producers Board on management–labour relations within the export meat industry. Whereas the Board is generally regarded as having empowered family‐labour farmers, we argue that its interventions also empowered meatworkers and simultaneously weakened meat‐processing companies as employers. The power resources indirectly supplied to meatworkers by the Board were an important external source of union power in the industry. By examining these resources, we identify the neglected effects of a key institution that shaped New Zealand's path of development by preventing the subsumption of ‘independent’ farming

Agriculture · Business · Economics · Institution · Management · Meat packing industry · On board · Political science · Power (physics) · Engineering · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Industrial relations · Labor Movements and Unions · Law