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{{other uses|bullpen (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Verification|date=May 2023}}{{citation style|date=September 2012}}

The '''bull pen''' or '''bull system''' (Roach 1993) was a feature of [[Australia]]n waterfront workers' life experience under the [[Dog-collar act]] where men were hired for the day on that day by lower management in a competitive face to face environment. This was strongly felt to be demeaning by workers. Roach states that the [[Port Kembla, New South Wales|Port Kembla]] branch of the wharfies union dismantled the bull system in 1938 (Roach, 1993). Given the unskilled nature of waterfront work, the hunger for jobs, and the dismantling of union power on the waterfront under the [[Dog-collar act]], the bull pen forced workers to compete and to cultivate servile and sycophantic relationships with individual foremen.{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} The bull system was eventually dismantled by a period of low unemployment and union power during the 1940s.

==References==
* E. C. Roach, "Menzies and Pig Iron for Japan" ''Labour History Conference'', 1993; ''Hummer'' 2:2 [http://asslh.org.au/hummer/vol-2-no-2/pig-iron/ online]
* Paul Houlihan, "The Legacy of the Hungry Mile: Some Vignettes from the Waterfront" ''Proceedings of the H. R. Nichols society,'' 7 1989; [https://web.archive.org/web/20120404004857/http://www.hrnicholls.com.au/archives/vol7/vol7-5.php online]

[[Category:Australian labour law]]


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