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2001
This comprehensive history of trade unions in the New Zealand printing industry provides an absorbing insight into a century and a half of our history.
It begins in the early 1860s, when the first typographical unions were formed in Dunedin and Wellington. It ends in 1996 when printers and journalists amalgamated with the Engineers Union to form the country’s largest private sector trade union – the NZ Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.
In between, Peter Franks addresses a number of fascinating stories and important theoretical issues, including changing technology and the question of worker control of change and the preservation of workers’ pay and conditions; divisions between different groups of workers, in the workplace and at the bargaining table; the place of politically conservative trade unions in New Zealand’s labour history, which is more commonly defined by left-wing militancy; and the growing involvement of Māori and of women in unionism.
Thoroughly researched, crisply written and illustrated with fascinating historical photographs, this book is an important contribution to New Zealand history.
'excellent, analytical labour history, written with a feel for the industry – all those slugs and galleys – and an eye for colour.' —Dean Parker, NZ Listener
Peter Franks (1950–2024) was actively involved in the labour movement since he joined the Labour Party at high school. Peter worked as an employment mediator and wrote histories of the Printers and Clerical Workers unions and numerous articles on labour history, and with Melanie Nolan co-edited the book Unions in Common Cause: The New Zealand Federation of Labour 1937–88. With Jim McAloon he also co-wrote Labour: The New Zealand Labour Party 1916–2016.
