Go-Slows, Strikes and Effort Bargaining

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart () and Michael Quinlan ()
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Hamish Maxwell-Stewart: University of New England
Michael Quinlan: UNSW Sydney

Chapter Chapter 7 in Unfree Workers, 2022, pp 161-192 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter focuses on methods used by convicts to exercise some control over their work, resist authority and secure concessions by organising go-slows or related forms of output restriction as well temporary withdrawals of labour or refusing work. Convicts struck on literally thousands of occasions and go-slows were particularly widespread, especially in government gangs and on large rural estates. This activity prefigured more formalised efforts to control work by unions. Fierce effort-bargaining was an effective form of resistance which considerably diminished the ‘cheapness’ of convict labour.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-16-7558-4_7

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