ABSTRACT
When all else fails, under the logic of an arbitral system, you go to the independent umpire. When all else fails, under the logic of a collective bargaining system, you strike. The shift in Australia from an arbitration-based model to a bargaining-based model would be expected to have had some major effects on strikes: their number, causes and duration and how they were resolved. Likewise, the re-collectivisation of employment relations through the Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act), after the Coalition’s policy of individualisation, could be expected further to affect strike patterns. This Chapter examines changing patterns of industrial conflict in Australia under a number of different policy regimes, including the early period of the FW Act. First, it briefly summarises some of the economic literature on strikes, then posits an alternative model which attempts to integrate economic and institutional explanations, relates the model to the historical characteristics of phases in Australian industrial relations policy, discusses data sources and methods, analyses aggregate trends in strike density and considers patterns regarding their causes, duration and termination. 1
