The Holt narrative and the industrial relations agenda

Abstract

The history of the industrial relations systcm in New Zealand is the history of dynamic tension between trade unions and employers. That in itself is an unexceptionable statement: it is true of any industrial relations system. It is the source and nature of that dynanmic tension which characterises a particular system. In this country that source and nature is often seriously misunderstood. It is depicted by the media (for the obvious reasons associated with their position within the nexus of relationships which make up the dominant consciousness) and by most academic historians (largely implicitly as an inarticulate major premise) as an offensive attempt on the part of the unions to elbow their way into an inappropriate control role within the political and industrial culture and as a defensive response on the part of employer organisations and successive governments to prevent this. The source of this depiction and the reasons for its persistence are interesting but rather outside lhe scope of this paper although they deserve to be canvassed at some point. Just now I want to suggest an alternative model which I believe to be much more sustainable on the facts.