"The best deal for workers" : Rockhampton unions and the Queensland arbitration system to 1957

On a day-to-day basis, most interaction between the state arbitration system and trade unions occurred in the workplace. This chapter focuses on Rockhampton during the almost-continuous Labor era from 1915 to 1957 when the arbitration system characteristically favoured unions over employers. It concludes that major unions there engaged demonstrated different approaches to arbitration but all generally supported the system. They did so for ideological reasons, because the system empowered them and because arbitration did indeed provide “the best deal for workers”