Book review of "Contemporary Australasian Industrial Relations Research: Proceedings of the 6th AIRAANZ Conference, Queensland University Of Technology 29 January-2 February 1992" edited by Douglas Blackmur, The Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, Department of Industrial Relations, University of Sydney

[Extract] This book, a collection of the thirty-four papers of various lengths (and strengths) presented at the 6th Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand conference, is more for reference than a cover-to-cover read. Unfortunately, the papers are not categorized according to sub-theme, but sequenced by author alphabetically - from Anderson et al. on 'Labour Market Flexibility' to Woldring on 'Works (Enterprise) Councils'. Strictly speaking, the collection is not confined to contemporary Australasian industrial relations research, as there are papers on symbioses in Britain and Canada (Cant), politics in Peru (Haworth), and trade unionism in Hungary (Hughes). However, other papers (Lansbury's, McDonald's and Woldring's) make comparisons between Australasian and, respectively, Swedish, North American and European industrial relations phenomena. So the collection is rather of papers researched by academicians in Australasia. The contemporary is especially represented by the themes of equality (Hede and Dingsdag, Fieldes, Mullen and Romans-Clarkson, Nyland and Kelly), the discipline (Gardner and Palmer), trade unionism (Bramble, Hince, Lambert, O’Brien), industry- or occupation-wide phenomena (Cockfield, Junor and Barlow, Maconachie, McGrath-Champ, Riley, Sherwood and Timo, Sonder and Martin, Pullin, Teicher, Underhill and Kelly), organizational behaviour (Cregan, Rosser), public policy (Peetz et al., Plowman) and labour law (Geare). The historical is represented by papers on the Australian Labor Party (Markey), the waterfront (Sheridan) and the Queensland coal industry (Turner). Disappointingly, for this reviewer, there are no papers, comparative or otherwise, on Asian phenomena despite the widely perceived implications of developments there for Australasia