The Geography of Industrial Restructuring in the Meatpacking Industry of the Pacific Rim: Some Insights on the Role of Trade

This thesis has it origins in an industrial dispute that took place during 1991 at a meat packing plant in Camperdown, a small town in the grazing country of western Victoria. The plant had been shut for some time until bought as one of two by a foreign investor. On the advice of the legal firm who brokered the sale the new owner appointed a contract management and labour hire firm, Troubleshooters Available. Both the lawyers and the management firm directors were members of a neoliberal political organization and think tank, the H R Nicholls Society. Both have been linked in campaigns aimed at what they regard as the legal edifice of Australian industrial relations--special courts and tribunals. They claim this 'special status' gives unionised labour a sheltered legal and economic position that invites collusive behavior between them, large employers (especially manufacturers) and a social democrat state. A highly public and sometimes violent dispute between Troubleshooters Available and the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU) ensued at Camperdown.