Human Resources on the Waterfront: Managing History

Abstract The present paper examines the introduction of the Conaust (Fremantle) 1991 Enterprise Based Agreement (EBA). It is more about impressions than about ‘facts’, presenting an interpretive view of the likelihood that the environment at Conaust was conducive to the deep change required by the EBA. The paper describes the nature of waterfront workers' (wharfie) work, the employee relations context within which the waterfront culture developed, the history of Conaust in Fremantle and the Conaust EBA. A central focus of the paper is the contradistinction between behaviours that were a part of the strong waterfront history and those that were accepted as part of the future.