‘Hell for Leather’: Industrial Relations and Politics in the Boot Trades, 1945–55

Abstract

This article looks at the Victorian and New South Wales branches of the Australian Boot Trade Employees' Federation in the years leading up to the great Labour Split of 1954. The central point of this article is that there is a close relationship between the factional conflicts of the time and the nature of work and unionism. The article seeks to make these points: first, that industrial conflict shared many of the features of the better known post-war disputes including tensions within the union; second, that the factional struggles immediately after World War Two had a clear and enduring industrial significance; third, that gender relations were part of these industrial struggles; fourth, that in this union, the battle for control was substantially won and lost well before the political split of the mid-1950 s and that, in the course of these struggles, the union had become less open and less important to its members.