Western Samoa Trade Unionism: the 1981 Public Service Strike

Abstract

I have used a proposition developed in Kerry Howe's seminal work Where the Waves Fall (1984) to offer an explanatory framework for understanding industrial relations in the South Pacific. The paper concentrates on applying this analysis to a key moment in Western Samoan industrial relations, the 1981 public service strike. The key concept used in this analysis is mutual adjustment. The concept refers to an interactive process between foreign institutions, such as trade unions, and pre-existing institutions and values like fa' a Samoa (the cultural and political value system of Western Samoa). While the 1981 strike, and South Pacific industrial relations in general, can be interpreted from a nwnber of pespectives rhe approach used in this paper may offer a method that does not obscure the full interplay between Western values and institutions and local forces.