The early 1980s saw the emergence of the wide comb dispute. The Wool Growers Association and The National Farmers Federation proposed an amendment to the pastoral award to allow combs for shearing wider than 2.5 inches,claimed to be 14 per cent more productive. A rebel group of shearers were championing the cause led by Robert White. Such combs had been long prohibited by the award,and the ban had become an article of faith for the union.
The dispute was,in some ways,a proxy war. New Zealand shearers,poorly unionised and accepting of lesser wages and conditions,were proficient in the use of wide combs. The union feared,correctly,that their introduction would damage both wages and the union’s power and influence.
The dispute tested the union. Solidarity is hard enough to maintain on the floor of a steelworks,but doing so across vast expanses of the state with small clusters of nomadic workers proved near impossible. The ten-week national strike was eventually broken. In 1983,the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission modified the pastoral award to allow for the use of wide combs.
The union’s defeat is now seen as heralding the rise of a new right dedicated to breaking down industrial regulation and destroying the union movement’s industrial,social and political power in Australia. In the shearing industry,it is seen as the point at which union militancy began to decline. Without the presence of the union across every shearing shed through elected delegates,there was no feasible way to ensure enforcement of award conditions.
ABC’s Four Corners dedicated an episode to the wide comb dispute at its height. The episode details the bitter violence,intimidation and bitter community conflict that characterised the dispute.
It also shows Mick O’Shea the union official,at the height of his powers. He is staunch,unrepentant,less condemnatory of violence than perhaps a modern union official might be,but careful and canny in his language and presentation. Later in life,Mick was wise enough to acknowledge mistakes but defiant about the essence of the dispute until the end.
Mick maintained AWU and Labor Party membership,attaining life membership in both. He became a life member of the Labor Party and a mentor and inspiration to future generations of union and party leaders. He was well known in Dubbo and active in the Catholic Church and charitable organisations.
From the long and,at times,arduous path from the industrial relations landscape of the 1940s to today,Mick’s presence looms large. Every step of the way,as a member,delegate,official,state secretary,and well into his retirement,Michael Joseph O’Shea was there living his values.
Mick,who passed away in Dubbo on February 29,lived 90 years,a life dedicated to his family,his union,his faith and to Labor. A life dedicated to the service of others. He was husband to Shirley,who predeceased him,and a loving father and father-in-law of Michele,Michael and Dianna,Wayne and Wendy,Paul and Leeanne and Gerard. He had nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Jack Ayoub is an AWU organiser
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