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Successful unionism in a difficult environment
The Papua New Guinea Maritime Workers
Industrial Union in the 1990s
Michael Hess
Internationally, maritime transport has gained a reputation for difficult industrial relationships. It has also provided amongst the most successful
examples of union organisation. With wharves and ships playing pivotal roles in national and international trade for a wide range of industries, workers in these areas have been able to use industrial power in ways
unavailable to most employees. Industrial relations results are seen along a continuum from cultures of bargaining to traditions of confrontation. State intervention has also played a prominent role, with
governments drawn to attempt regulation of an industry with such broad economic impacts.
Globalisation and workplace reforms in two regional agri-food
industries Australian meat processing and Fijis sugar mills
Darryn Snell
In a growing number of South Pacific nations, there is rising concern about the impact
of globalisation on the regions agri-food industries. In developing Pacific Island Countries (PICs) changing market conditions and declining preferential trading
arrangements have contributed to harsh competitive pressures and an uncertain future for many of their agricultural industries (Hince 2000; Murray 1998; Prasad & Akram
-Lodhi 1996, 1998; World Bank 1993). Agricultural industries in New Zealand and Australia also continue to confront staunch competition as increased agricultural
exports from the United States, Europe and Latin America enter into their local and traditional agricultural export markets (Lawrence 1987; LeHeron 1993). Agri
-industrial reform programmes throughout the Pacific have been the outcome of these competitive pressures (Lawrence, Share & Campbell 1992; UNIDO 1983). This
paper presents two case studiesthe Australian beef industry and Fijis sugar industry. It compares and contrasts recent reform efforts in the processing sectors (i.e. meat
processing and sugar milling) of each of these industries. This comparison revolves around two core issues: the use of alternative payment schemes to boost performance
and productivity levels and overall international competitiveness; and the managerial styles adopted to carry out reforms in the respective industries. The paper concludes
with a discussion of matters for regional consideration.
Linking economic globalisation and regimes of labour regulation Trends in the AsiaPacific region
Satendra Prasad
Economic internationalisation and the problem of labour regulation
The economic globalisation debate has been most vigorous with reference to the
developmental experiences of East Asia and the Pacific states (Wade 1996; Wade & Veneroso 1998). This debate has paid inadequate attention to the place of labour
market institutions and state regulation of labour in explaining the phenomenon of accelerated growth and sharp contractions. By situating the state regulation of labour
at the centre-stage of the economic globalisation debate, this paper throws light on the complex and various ways in which economic globalisation has affected the
developmental trajectories of three states in the AsiaPacific region over the past two decades. It examines the association between changes to regulatory regimes for
labour and patterns of internationalisation in New Zealand, Malaysia and Japan quite specifically. The paper also draws on more general AsiaPacific data collated by the ILO (1996).
Against the Tide
The possibilities and prospects for tripartism in Fiji
Satendra Prasad, Darryn Snell and Kevin Hince
Since the mid-1980s, tripartite industrial relations arrangements have withered away in numerous
countries amidst the neo-laissez-faire political and economic agenda of free trade and deregulated labour markets. Fijis experience has been no exception to this global
trend. The Peoples Coalition Government elected in May 1999 began re-evaluating the countrys labour institutions, eroded during a decade of structural adjustment and
labour market reforms. This paper argues that tripartism worked well in Fiji in the past but changes are required in order to overcome past shortcomings and confront current
global challenges. It assesses the capability of reconstituted tripartite institutions to provide a framework within which may be reconciled the tensions and contradictions
inherent in maintaining interventionist labour market institutions such as tripartism while pursuing the goals of trade liberalisation and economic reform, and the balance
between equity and growth obtained. The options advanced here have special relevance following the May 2000 displacement of the Peoples Coalition Government,
as the social partners confront the difficult task of economic reconstruction. The paper draws upon Philippines experience with tripartism for lessons that may be appropriate
for Fiji at this stage of its development, concluding with a statement regarding the future of tripartism in light of the ongoing political crisis.
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