ABSTRACT
This chapter takes a short interlude from the teachers' history and a brief synopsis of white collar unionism because they illustrate a complexity about white collar/education work which can't simply be brushed aside by reference to managerial professional ideologies, status or contradictory class location. It shifts from the review of theoretical analyses to examination of the problems that teachers and white collar workers actually faced and their ways of dealing with them. Larger concentrations of white collar staff, their specialisation into different facets of clerical or other work, and their assignment to grades all affected their elite, priviledged position at work. White collar unions, weak in organisation and traditions, turned to a positive policy of actions built around strong local membership bases. In a period of labour shortage, rising inflation and attacks on working conditions, the unions were increasingly strong and determined, influenced by grassroots membership and other union actions.
