ABSTRACT
The extent of the farm workers’ social and economic dependency right down to the second world war is easily forgotten by those whose view of labour history is derived from the different circumstances of the industrial worker. During the second world war the machinery for fixing minimum wages was again centralized, and although agricultural workers suffered the restriction of being compelled to remain on the land, they were compensated with a sharp rise in the minimum wage. At the national level many of the workers’ leaders have had a more tenuous connection with the land. Although the Workers’ and Farmers’ Unions are about the same age, they represent quite different levels of organizational maturity. For the workers these are still very much days of ‘each against all’. Legal services and other benefits, which played a large role in the early days of the National Farmers’ Union, are still given great prominence by the Workers’ Union.
