School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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Type: Honours thesis × Subject: Melbourne × Subject: labour history ×

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    Survival, camraderie and aspirations: the intimate lives of Chinese and Vietnamese women in Melbourne's 1990s textiles industry
    Lu, Vivian ( 2019)
    This thesis examines the working subjectivities of female Chinese and Vietnamese textiles workers in 1990s Melbourne, with a particular focus on raced and gendered agencies. While traditional labour historians elucidate worker resistance through protest and trade union dynamics, such a framework does little to account for the 'hidden' agency of migrant workers who were outwardly circumspect and forbearing. Drawing extensively on oral history interviewing and diasporic memory, this thesis takes a ‘history from below’ approach and hones in on the intimate, personal dimensions of garment factory work that were central to the contestation of power. In doing so, it demonstrates how persistence and tacit expressions of resistance in the workplace amongst Chinese and Vietnamese textiles workers were located in interpersonal factory relationships, class aspirations and motherhood.
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    A dangerous incline: the Victorian Laundry Association and the Chinese Employment Bills of 1903 - 1907
    Fry, Brendan ( 2013)
    Late in the evening on the 5th of June 1902, a group of white laundrymen from the Victorian Laundry Association (hereafter VLA) walked the streets of Melbourne investigating the working habits of local Chinese laundrymen. Dissatisfied with the performance of factory inspectors tasked with upholding the provisions of the 1896 Factories Act, the men had taken it upon themselves to keep Chinese workers in order, forming a ‘Flying Gang’ akin to Banjo Paterson’s evocation of railway maintenance workers. Prowling the deserted streets of Prahran and Windsor, the three men visited Chinese laundries in the area without warning, hoping to secure evidence of work being undertaken outside of legal hours. (From Introduction)