Labour and Industrial Relations in New Zealand. by John M. Howells; Noel S. Woods; F. J. L.YoungReview by: Norman F. DuftyIndustrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Jan., 1976), p. 312Published by: Cornell University, School of Industrial & Labor RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2522165 .

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312 INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS REVIEW

Labour and Industrial Relations in New Zealand. Edited by John M. Howells, Noel S. Woods, and F. J. L. Young. Mel- bourne, Australia: Sir Isaac Pitman, 1974. xvi, 331 pp. N.p.

Teaching industrial relations in New Zea- land has become increasingly important dur- ing the last decade. Since the last comprehensive coverage of the topic was published three decades ago although Woods wrote about the New Zealand arbi- tration system in 1963-this volume of read- ings answers a need for suitable teaching materials.

The book is divided into four parts. The first deals with worker and employer orgaani- zations, the second with industrial relations legisla tion in both the public and the pri-

vate sector, the third with industrial con- flict, and the final one with the labor mar- ket and wages. Half of the eighteen contributions were written by academics and half by practitioners.

The three chapters of part one are largely historical and descriptive, except for Keal- ing's contribution on unions in the public service in which some analysis is attempted. In part two, two chapters are solely descrip- tive, and two add some critical and analyti- cal comment. Part three, containing six chapters, reflects New Zealand's preoccupa- tion with industrial conflict. Some chapters, such as Howells's review of twenty years of strike activity, are historical and analytical and others, such as 1\IcLean's account of dis- pute procedure in the meat industry, are descriptive. Part three also includes an ex- amination of the legal consequences of in- dustrial action by Grimes, two comments from trade unionists but none fromt employ- ers, and a speculative chapter on mediation by John Drotning. Part four contains a suir- vey of the New Zealand labor market by Young, which outlines the structure of the market and comments on the broader effects of the observed structuring, and an excel- lent analysis of the changes in New Zea- land's wage structure by Martin. The contri- bution in part four on "MVIanpower Planning and Freedom" is rather curious; it says almost nothing about manpower plan-

ning and little more about freedom. It also manages to ignore the role of education in manpower planning almost completely. The

chapter on the farmillng sector, which is full of irrelevant material, is weak, and the final one-on prices, productivity, and wages-is too general, and too brief, lacking in refer- ences to important recent work in the field, such as Turner and Jackson's. Furthermore, in the present economic context, the au- thor's statement that a target of a one per- cent per annuIm rise iI I)rices is both dlesirable and achievable can only be re- garded as laughable.

Generally, the material in this hook is well written and most, but not all, is ade- quately rlocumented. The contributions vary in quality, of course, but the degree of con- sistency that was achieved by the editors is commendable. In addition, a. limited amount of useful data is given in statistical appendices, and there is a reasonably ade- quate index.

The most obvious areas of neglect-the sociological a n d political aspects of in- dIustrial relations are symptomatic of the economic and legal emphasis in industrial relations in New Zealand. The Australian reader is inevitably tempted to compare this book with the volumes of readings by Ford and Isaac on Australian industrial relations, and the comparison emphasizes the flaws in the volume being' reviewed, especially the need for interconnectino- tissue to link the contributions together into a -unified whole. A-nother criticism, fromt the academic poilnt of view, is the almost completely atheoreti- cal tone of the material: passing references are occasionally made to economic theory, but virtually no attention is l)aidl to the main hody of theory in other disciplines or to the growing body of theory of industrial relations per se. In sumn, one caIn say that although the edlitors have presented some well-written, interesting material not other- wise available, they could have done much better. Perhaps later editions will show some liml)roveinent.

No)-muan P. Duftj Dean of Social Sciences \Western Atustralian Institute

of Technology

Trade Unionism. By J. A. Banks. Lon- don: Collier-Macmillan Publishers, 1974. vi, 138 pp. ?1.25.

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