From building site warriors to Korean church: radical strategic realignment in Sydney’s construction union

Article

Leung, Jenny Kwai-Sim, James, Kieran and Ahmad, Sujan. 2011. "From building site warriors to Korean church: radical strategic realignment in Sydney’s construction union." International Journal of Economics and Accounting. 2 (4), pp. 387-416. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJEA.2011.044385
Article Title

From building site warriors to Korean church: radical strategic realignment in Sydney’s construction union

ERA Journal ID123233
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsLeung, Jenny Kwai-Sim (Author), James, Kieran (Author) and Ahmad, Sujan (Author)
Journal TitleInternational Journal of Economics and Accounting
Journal Citation2 (4), pp. 387-416
Number of Pages30
Year2011
ISSN2041-868X
2041-8698
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1504/IJEA.2011.044385
Web Address (URL)http://www.inderscience.com/search/index.php?action=record&rec_id=44385
Abstract

We present a detailed case study of the relationship between migrant labour and a trade union in a period immediately following 12 years of hostile neo-liberal politics in Australia: 1996–2007. We find that Australia’s
Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has reinvented itself as a centralised but humanitarian organisation in the face of sustained institutional hostility at governmental and industrial levels. In the process the union has become a valuable arm of assistance for migrant workers in their endeavours to access acceptable wages, decent working conditions, and
post-Dickensian standards of workplace safety. Through three micro-cases we detail worker exploitation and document a dedicated organisational strategy of humanitarian union action towards migrant workers which both goes far beyond the normal expectations of union membership. Accounting is implicated in our micro-cases as it is, according to the theory of A. Tanaka, the brain or ‘social consciousness’ of capital. The ideology of accounting ultimately dehumanises workers because wages expenses go ‘above the line’ and hence are seen as just a further cost item to be minimised

Keywordsclass struggle; communist parties; construction industry; dialectic; left-humanitarianism; labour process; Marx; migrant workers; social movement unionism; trade unions; Korea; Australia
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020350504. Industrial and employee relations
350199. Accounting, auditing and accountability not elsewhere classified
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Byline AffiliationsCharles Sturt University
School of Accounting, Economics and Finance
Monash University
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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