Citation

Byrne R. Int. J. Rural Criminol. 2007; 1: 79-92.

Affiliation

Monash University

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Ohio State University (US) and the Institute for Rural Futures, University of New England (Australia))

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article examines the policing of pickets and lockouts, the overt manifestations of industrial disputation, in rural settings. Traditionally throughout Australia, whenever employer or government requested police intervention in smashing picket lines, the police response was often swift, legalistic, forceful and at times brutal. By examining some historical and contemporary case-studies of the policing of industrial disputes in rural and regional areas, this article argues that the confrontation between police and unionists has often been affected by the composition of the police body employed against the picketers. Where the police involved have been, or are, local or ‘outside’ constabulary is a significant factor in the processes and sometimes the outcome of the dispute. In terms of preventing violence at pickets and lockouts, police leaders need to carefully consider the composition of those police used to control an industrial dispute in a rural community. Similarly, union organisers and picket captains must restrain certain individuals and discourage certain behaviours at the picket-line. Police perform the delicate balancing task of enforcing the law and keeping the peace and security during industrial conflict. After the dispute is settled, as all are eventually, local police remain in the town; the workers do too, but capital and ‘outside’ forces are much more mobile. In many situations, local police, immersed in the community, are better placed than ‘outsiders’ but there are circumstances when an ‘outside’ force may be more appropriate to deal with the dispute.