tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/changing-face-of-unions-26799/articlesChanging face of unions – The Conversation2018-06-28T10:40:25Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/990672018-06-28T10:40:25Z2018-06-28T10:40:25ZNevada’s unions show how organized labor can flourish even after an adverse Supreme Court ruling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225247/original/file-20180628-112628-co3lba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nevada unions have been successful in part because of their political engagement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Isaac Brekken</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>American labor unions <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/26/public-sector-unions-brace-for-damaging-blow-from-supreme-court/gVMaUs9Gu6RcprdPtQLekI/story.html">have long been bracing</a> for a “post-Janus” future in which collecting dues would be harder than ever. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/janus-v-american-federation-state-county-municipal-employees-council-31/">Janus case</a> has been moving through the courts for two years and addresses the question of whether a public employee can be forced to pay dues to a union that represents him or her. </p>
<p>On June 27, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/us/politics/supreme-court-unions-organized-labor.html">said</a> no, which means the much-feared poorer future is now upon organized labor. While some pundits argue that this <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article201986374.html">may “cripple”</a> certain unions across the country, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Q0iWni4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my research</a> in Nevada suggests it doesn’t have to be that way.</p>
<p>Nevada unions have been operating under this very constraint for 65 years and yet have managed to thrive. As such, I believe they offer three important lessons for labor unions in other states as they grapple with an indisputably bleak legal environment. </p>
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<span class="caption">Supporters of Illinois government employee Mark Janus cheer as he walks to thank them outside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin</span></span>
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<h2>Janus and right to work</h2>
<p>The Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. State, County and Municipal Employees that employees who receive the benefits of union representation are not required to pay any fees for those services because that would be “compelled speech” in <a href="https://theconversation.com/janus-decision-extends-first-amendment-right-of-silence-99066">violation</a> of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. </p>
<p>Governments in every state are now constitutionally prevented from entering into agreements with their workers requiring the employees to pay for union expenses, such as collective bargaining and handling grievances. This creates the risk that more and more employees will become “free riders,” getting the benefits of union representation but bearing none of the costs. </p>
<p>Janus is the latest success of the <a href="http://www.nrtw.org/right-to-work-frequently-asked-questions/">right-to-work movement</a>, which has <a href="http://wuwm.com/post/history-right-work-legislation-its-impact-unions#stream/0">been involved in litigation</a>, legislation and public advocacy against what it calls “forced unionism” since the first federal collective bargaining laws were enacted in the 1930s.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/collective_bargaining">Those laws</a> were modeled on the principle that larger units of workers have greater bargaining power than smaller, segmented ones. In addition, the idea was that employees should be required to pay for union representation to maintain collective strength. And that the union in return would owe those who disagreed with it a duty of fair treatment.</p>
<p>In 1947, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/164">federal law</a> was changed to allow states to adopt so called right-to-work laws, which, like the Janus ruling, forbid compulsory payment of union dues by workers who are covered under a collective bargaining agreement. Currently, 28 states have right-to-work laws.</p>
<p>Nevada, the state where I live, adopted its right-to-work law in <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Nevada_Right-to-Work_Law,_Question_1_(1952)">1952</a>. </p>
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<h2>The Nevada paradox</h2>
<p>While union membership has <a href="https://ler.illinois.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/RTW-in-the-Midwest-2010-2016.pdf">declined</a> in many states with right-to-work laws, Nevada is among a few where the labor movement has remained fairly robust. Its union membership rate of 12.7 percent in 2017 was the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/new-york-again-had-highest-union-membership-rate-south-carolina-the-lowest-in-2017.htm">second-highest</a> among right-to-work states.</p>
<p>That’s one reason Nevada’s unions offer important lessons for the rest of the labor movement on how to succeed in today’s more legally adverse environment. </p>
<p>My <a href="http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub/1101/">research</a> has focused on private sector labor like the Culinary Workers and Bartenders Unions in Las Vegas, which are separate entities but bargain as one. Known as “the Culinary,” together they are the largest union in Nevada, representing nearly 57,000 workers in Southern Nevada and some properties in the Reno area.</p>
<p>Although the Las Vegas hospitality industry is unique in its scale and need for trained workers, the Culinary has thrived for more than 80 years by balancing on three poles: an immigrant-focused organizing ethic, political engagement and delivering services to members both in the workplace and in the community.</p>
<p>Many of the strategies employed to successfully organize the Culinary workers, then, will be key to the survival and success of organized labor across the country in the post-Janus world.</p>
<h2>Shoe-leather organizing</h2>
<p>Most unions around the country are familiar with the kind of shoe-leather organizing that the Culinary has utilized over its lifetime, such as house visits, worker-to-worker contact and, increasingly, social media strategies. This has led to a nearly 90 percent unionization <a href="http://www.culinaryunion226.org/news/clips/unions-brace-for-supreme-court-janus-decision">rate</a> on the famous Las Vegas Strip. </p>
<p>But the Culinary stands out for the success of its efforts, which has included working hard to recruit immigrants and women. For example, it <a href="http://www.culinaryunion226.org/union/history">proudly calls</a> itself Nevada’s largest immigrant organization, with members from 173 countries, more than half of them Latino. </p>
<p>In addition, about 55 percent of its members are women, which is higher than the <a href="https://iwpr.org/issue/democracy-and-society/women-in-unions/">national average</a> of about 46 percent. </p>
<p>In a right-to-work world, this kind of contact and engagement with workers – especially those who have not traditionally courted by unions – are essential for the survival of the labor movement. </p>
<h2>Political engagement</h2>
<p>The political engagement of the union has enhanced its importance among the state’s politicians because it supports their candidacies through get-out-the vote campaigns, election monitoring and social media outreach. </p>
<p>The Culinary’s <a href="https://twitter.com/Culinary226/status/1006715698352218114">endorsement</a> is coveted, and the get-out-the-vote campaigns they engage in have been successful in electing many of their preferred candidates and preventing the rise of some of the conservative candidates that have appeared in other states.</p>
<p>This political engagement can have an impact at the bargaining table, leading to community support for their recently successful efforts to organize new casinos outside of the Las Vegas Strip. This suggests that after Janus, public sector unions will have to get more political, rather than less.</p>
<h2>Delivering for the rank and file</h2>
<p>Finally, the success of two depend on and contribute to the third lesson: The Culinary is able to deliver the kinds of extra services and benefits for its members that ensure they keep paying their dues. </p>
<p>Others include efforts to help its many immigrant members, such as the <a href="http://www.culinaryunion226.org/affiliates/citizenship">Citizenship Project</a>, which has aided in the naturalization of nearly 20,000 Nevadans since its inception in 2001. Another member benefit is the Housing Partnership <a href="http://www.culinaryunion226.org/affiliates/housing-partnership">Program</a>, which the union won from employers to help workers buy their first homes. And the Culinary Training <a href="http://www.theculinaryacademy.org">Academy</a>, a nationally recognized joint labor management training program, showcases the union’s role in training the workforce to the benefit of workers and the hospitality industry. </p>
<p>These are all examples of labor-community partnerships that show the importance of unions not just to their own members but to others as well.</p>
<p>Unions across the country will struggle somewhat in the short term to do these kinds of projects due to their diminished resources, but these are the kinds of priorities that will build the labor movement over the long haul.</p>
<h2>The road forward</h2>
<p>Now that the Janus decision is almost certain to cut into how much money unions can collect from the workers they represent, their survival will depend on how well they can learn from places like Nevada and do more in these three areas. </p>
<p>An unfortunate side effect of the Supreme Court ruling, however, is that “labor peace” – a good working relationship between a union and management, one of the main goals of any union when it makes a contract with a company – will be more elusive than ever. Instead core members are likely to become more energized, as we’ve seen in mass demonstrations by teachers in Arizona, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Arizona – all right-to-work states, in fact. </p>
<p>Without a doubt, Janus marks a milestone in the history of labor unions in the U.S. But to its right-to-work supporters’ chagrin, it might not be the future they wanted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruben J. Garcia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While the Supreme Court’s Janus ruling dealt a blow to organized labor, three lessons from Nevada’s unions suggest things aren’t as bleak as they appear.Ruben J. Garcia, Professor of Law, Co-Director of UNLV Workplace Law Program, University of Nevada, Las VegasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/781672017-06-13T02:58:07Z2017-06-13T02:58:07ZFuture of unions in balance as Trump prepares to reshape national labor board<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173430/original/file-20170612-7026-1vr79yp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yale University graduate students have sought to form a union for more than a decade. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Bob Child</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last October, employees of the Elderwood Nursing Home in Grand Island, New York, <a href="https://www.1199seiu.org/upstateny/victory-elderwood">voted</a> to unionize after years of dealing with short staffing, stagnant wages and problems with management. Six months later, the company has yet to come to the bargaining table, claiming that there are unresolved legal questions about whether licensed practical nurses can be part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).</p>
<p>Yale University <a href="https://theconversation.com/yale-grad-students-hunger-strike-cant-turn-the-tide-for-labor-77900">has recently come under criticism</a> for making a similar decision. Despite a February vote to unionize by graduate students in eight departments, Yale has so far <a href="http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/04/12/yale-refuses-negotiations-with-local-33/">resisted</a> calls to begin the bargaining process. Instead, it has appealed the decision to certify the election and is refusing to bargain until the appeal is decided.</p>
<p>Elderwood and Yale could hardly be more different. Yale is a world-class Ivy League bastion of higher education. Elderwood is a medium-sized elder care company that operates nursing home facilities in New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Yet both have made the strategic decision to not recognize the <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/labor-power-15530">right of their employees to unionize</a>. Why?</p>
<p>My research on the decline of the labor movement suggests a reason: Employers are counting on a changing of the guard at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). </p>
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<span class="caption">The NLRB is about to go under new management.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jon Elswick</span></span>
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<h2>Republicans take control</h2>
<p>The NLRB is the administrative agency that is tasked with enforcing the <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/resources/national-labor-relations-act">National Labor Relations Act</a>, the federal statute that gives employees the right to unionize and collectively bargain. The NLRB consists of five members who are appointed to five-year terms by the president upon the advice and consent of the Senate. </p>
<p>Right now, there are two vacancies on the board that President Donald Trump will fill. Once the Senate confirms President Trump’s nominees, Republicans will control the board for the first time since <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/who-we-are/board/members-nlrb-1935">2007</a>. </p>
<p>The background of the three candidates <a href="https://www.bna.com/trump-nlrb-shortlist-n57982084216/">reportedly</a> under consideration suggests that the board will in fact be much friendlier to business interests under the Trump administration. One of the potential nominees, <a href="http://www.seatonlaw.com/attorneys/douglas-p-seaton/">Doug Seaton</a>, has made a career of being a “<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/union-buster-president-trump-list-fill-spot-nlrb-article-1.3100158">union-buster</a>,” the term used to describe a consultant brought in by employers to beat a unionization campaign. Another, <a href="https://www.littler.com/people/william-j-emanuel">William Emanuel</a>, is a partner at Littler Mendelson, one of the largest and most successful anti-labor law firms in the country. Less is known about the third potential candidate, Marvin Kaplan, but his history as a Republican staffer <a href="https://qz.com/682125/the-alliance-between-us-businesses-and-the-republican-party-is-in-shambles/">suggests he may also</a> represent employers’ interests.</p>
<p>Many observers <a href="https://www.law360.com/articles/907451/7-obama-era-nlrb-rulings-trump-s-board-may-strike-down">assume</a> that this new board will overturn many Obama-era precedents that favored unions. These precedents include questions such as how to define bargaining units, at issue at both Yale and Elderwood. </p>
<p>But the new board could go even further and roll back pro-union decisions dating back decades. This could be devastating to already weakened unions. With <a href="https://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpslutab3.htm">private sector union membership</a> hovering at a dismal 6.4 percent – down from about 17 percent in 1983 – nothing short of the end of the labor movement could be at stake.</p>
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<h2>How politics intruded on the NLRB</h2>
<p>The composition of the NLRB is important because most claims regarding the right to organize and collectively bargain are decided by the agency. </p>
<p>Unlike other employment statutes, such as <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm">Title VII</a> and the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/">Fair Labor Standards Act</a>, individuals and unions cannot file claims in federal court and instead must participate in the administrative process set up by the National Labor Relations Act. While aggrieved parties can appeal board rulings to federal appeals courts, judges grant a high degree of deference to NLRB decisions. </p>
<p>In other words, three board members – a bare majority of the board – have an enormous ability to influence and shape American labor policy. </p>
<p>Given the amount of power these three individuals can wield, it is no wonder that the NLRB has become <a href="http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/faculty_scholarship/136/">highly politicized</a> in the decades since its creation in the 1930s. Ironically, the board was originally established as a way to try to insulate labor policy from political influences. </p>
<p>The drafters of the labor act <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1341293.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">believed</a> that the federal courts were hostile to labor rights and would chip away at the protections in a way that would be bad for unions. Instead, the board has become a political battlefield for the two parties who hold very different views about labor policy. </p>
<p>This politicization came to a head during the Obama administration, when it became impossible to confirm anyone to serve on the NLRB. In response, Obama <a href="https://www.littler.com/es/president-bypasses-senate-make-recess-appointments-nlrb">appointed several members</a> using his recess appointment power, which allows the president to avoid Senate confirmation of nominees when Congress is in recess. </p>
<p>Employers challenged the move, and the Supreme Court eventually invalidated the recess appointments as executive overreach in <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/national-labor-relations-board-v-noel-canning/">NLRB v. Noel Canning</a>. After the decision, Obama and the Senate finally agreed on five members that were confirmed. This new board, with a Democratic majority, then decided many of the precedents that employers hope the new members will overturn.</p>
<h2>Flaws in the National Labor Relations Act</h2>
<p>So what will happen if Elderwood and Yale bet wrong and lose their appeals in front of the new Republican-controlled board?</p>
<p>In all likelihood, not much. The board process is long and cumbersome. It often takes years from the filing of a charge for failure to bargain to the board’s decision. In the meantime, employers hope that unions will have turnover in their membership, become disorganized and lose support.</p>
<p>Moreover, the penalties available under the National Labor Relations Act are <a href="https://www.acslaw.org/sites/default/files/Dannin_No_Rights_Without_Remedy_0.pdf">weak</a>. If an employer is found to have violated the act, the board can issue a “cease-and-desist” letter and require the employer to post a notice promising not to engage in further violations. These penalties hardly encourage employers to comply with their obligations, especially when they have so much to gain from obstructing attempts to unionize and collectively bargain. </p>
<p>If the labor movement is to survive, the National Labor Relations Act needs to be reformed to fix these problems. Instead, a few years of a Republican-controlled NLRB could be organized labor’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-americas-labor-unions-are-about-to-die-69575">death knell</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78167/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Hallett directs the Community Justice Clinic, which represents low-wage workers on employment matters, though not before the National Labor Relations Board.</span></em></p>Thwarted efforts to organize at Yale and a New York nursing home show how a changing of the guard at the National Labor Relations Board could potentially end the labor movement.Nicole Hallett, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, University at BuffaloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/573512016-05-03T04:44:42Z2016-05-03T04:44:42ZLifting their ‘voice’: how unions can arrest membership decline and stay relevant<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120631/original/image-20160429-28040-1o5s6id.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The association representing AFL players is a good example of using a union model to give workers a voice.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dan Peled</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s industrial relations system has been transformed since the late 1980s. The decline of compulsory arbitration and the onset of bargaining decentralisation have led to greater disparity of wages and working conditions in a regulatory system that leaves behind those who do not possess a strong bargaining position. </p>
<p>Under these conditions it would seem clear that <a href="https://theconversation.com/ideas-for-australia-improving-democracy-for-workers-is-not-easy-but-it-must-be-done-56429">unions have a role to play</a> in preserving minimum standards for all workers and in bargaining enterprise agreements for their members. </p>
<p>Yet unions now represent less than one in five workers. This leaves many workplaces union-free zones.</p>
<p>So, how can unions rebuild their fortunes? Australian unions are by no means alone in facing this challenge. And organising tactics alone will not redress core issues related to image and relevance in an increasingly individualised world.</p>
<h2>Rethinking the union ‘brand’</h2>
<p>A lesson to be drawn from the success of the current political campaign to popularise unions as industrial louts is the need for some re-branding. For example, professional sporting players’ associations (who are unions by another name) have done very well in presenting themselves as a modern face of collectivism, representing workers’ interests through a mix of what are actually traditional union methods. </p>
<p>In the lucrative world of competitive sports, player associations have managed, through collective bargaining and even the use of concerted industrial action, to obtain a larger share of the overall sports revenue pie. Large-scale industrial action in some codes has even cut short sporting seasons.</p>
<p>Player associations are also active in promoting player welfare both in terms of health and safety in what are inherently dangerous workplaces, and in terms of player development and post-career player support. As we have seen from the AFL, health and safety extends beyond what happens on the pitch to include how coaches, teams and codes manage player welfare through the sanctioning of enhancing and illicit drugs.</p>
<p>An important, if under-appreciated, aspect of the recent illicit drugs scandal in the AFL was the fact that the AFL Players Association (AFLPA), in its agreement with the AFL, voluntarily agreed to off-season hair testing for illicit drugs. In doing so, the players put themselves ahead of the standard that applies to players in most other sporting codes.</p>
<p>Other sporting unions have begun programs to promote player development and support. In 2015 the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) launched a <a href="http://www.auscricket.com.au/news-media/news-articles/australias-elite-cricketers-fund-program-to-strengthen-premier-cricket">club cricket development program</a>, funded by an increase in player revenue secured through a media rights agreement with Cricket Australia. </p>
<p>This use of members’ derived income as a pooled resource to assist past or uncontracted players, and to develop the game itself, sees a return to a classic aspect of early unionism, where unions were established as benevolent societies. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://ia902606.us.archive.org/27/items/industrialdemoc02webbgoog/industrialdemoc02webbgoog.pdf">Industrial Democracy</a>, Sidney and Beatrice Webb famously theorised this as the trade union method of mutual insurance. Unions (or guilds) established funds for the benefit of their members for loss of income occasioned by unemployment, accident, illness, and death. </p>
<h2>Partnering with employers</h2>
<p>Another aspect of sporting player associations is that many of their initiatives are developed in conjunction with the employer (in this case ACA and Cricket Australia), and this shows an important aspect of successful union activity. This is known as the “partnering” approach. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ramadd1951/southwest-airlines-way">Studies of organisations like Southwest Airlines</a> have demonstrated the value of a union-employer partnership model which promotes information sharing between different groups of employees, and with management. This can lead to problem solving across functional work areas. </p>
<p>Known as relational co-ordination, this kind of negotiation was critical in allowing Southwest to pioneer its successful business model based on the “25-minute turnaround”. Efficiency was enhanced because planes spent the minimum amount of time on the ground. </p>
<p>Other unions have been successful in advancing the interests of their members in ways that are broader than just fighting for wages and conditions of employment. The Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation – now Australia’s largest union – <a href="https://www.anmfsa.org.au/news-archive/new-figures-released-make-anmf-largest-union-is-australia/">defines itself as a collective</a> of its members’ industrial, profession, social, political and democratic interests. It has active campaigns in matters such as advocacy of public health funding for all Australians and in combating domestic violence. </p>
<p>In 2013, the Queensland Nurses Union also <a href="http://www.qnu.org.au/QNU/Campaigns/Nurse_and_Midwife_Power/QNU/Campaigns/Nurse_and_Midwife_Power_C6.aspx?hkey=af1017bb-67ae-4c09-bf9a-ef0f5d31f60c">established a fund</a> to help promote the professional views of its members. According to the union:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… nurses and midwives must use their power to take control of their workloads, to ensure safe workplaces, and to identify system deficiencies and achieve improvements … we invite politicians, policymakers, managers, and budget builders to tap into our power, listen to our nursing and midwifery voice, and collaborate with us.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The key to the success and relevance of unions such as these is that they are able to effectively voice the interests of their members, with the fundamental view that workers’ interests are separate and distinct from those of management. It is about <a href="https://theconversation.com/ideas-for-australia-improving-democracy-for-workers-is-not-easy-but-it-must-be-done-56429">giving workers a voice</a>.</p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>A cursory look at <a href="http://www.aflplayers.com.au/about-us/">the AFLPA’s website</a> captures the essence of the notion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is the belief of the AFL Players’ that, as key stakeholders, players deserve to continue to have their voices heard on all issues pertaining to themselves and the game.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If promoting “voice” is the key to union success, employee voice is also a contested space in which employers are becoming active. Therefore, unions are not only under pressure from changes to industrial laws that limit their power, but also from employer efforts to establish human resource management (HRM) as a substitute for unionism. </p>
<p>HRM offers the promise of a voice for employees through various engagement opportunities, such as staff surveys, suggestion schemes and high-involvement teamwork. However, HR engagement and voice is typically <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjir.12114/abstract">defined in the firm’s interests</a>, so that employee voice is expected to lead to productivity enhancement. </p>
<p>What unions can offer is a form of voice that is defined by worker interests, such as improving wages and working conditions, or even offering voice as a means of employee self-determination. </p>
<p>Long term, the fate of unions rests on their ability to convince workers of the need for such a voice more than on current efforts to re-regulate trade union governance and behaviour.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other pieces in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/changing-face-of-unions">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57351/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Barry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In an increasingly individualised workplace, unions can no longer rely on organising tactics to survive. Instead, they need to undertake a major “rebranding”.Michael Barry, Head of Department, Griffith Business School, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/572182016-05-01T19:53:50Z2016-05-01T19:53:50ZWhat has happened to collective bargaining since the end of WorkChoices?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120480/original/image-20160428-30970-1aus1z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Achieving genuine co-operation in Australian workplaces is difficult.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Angela Brkic</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Rudd government came to power in 2007 with a mandate for industrial relations reform. There was an expectation on all sides that its <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fwa2009114/">Fair Work Act</a>, introduced to replace the previous Howard government’s <a href="http://www.findlaw.com.au/faqs/1916/what-was-workchoices-and-why-was-it-so-unpopular.aspx">WorkChoices</a>, would bring collective bargaining back to the centre of Australian employment relations. Labor and the unions hoped for it. The Coalition and employers feared it.</p>
<p>The Fair Work Act delivers a much more peculiar system of collective bargaining than many realise. It has outcomes that contradict the hopes and fears of both sides of the debate.</p>
<h2>What has happened to collective bargaining?</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.employment.gov.au/trends-federal-enterprise-bargaining">trends</a> in the Fair Work Act’s early years (2009 to 2012) appeared to confirm expectations of more collective bargaining. The average annual number of new agreements lodged during these years increased to nearly 8,400 from a plateau of around 7,000 during the previous decade (from 1998 to 2008). </p>
<p>Similarly, the period 2009 to 2013 produced an average of nearly one million employees covered by these new agreements each year. This is much higher than the long-term average of around 780,000 (from 1994 to 2008).</p>
<p>The first <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6306.0/">Australian Bureau of Statistics survey</a> after the Fair Work Act’s introduction, in 2010, found the percentage of all employees whose wages were determined by collective agreements had increased to 43.3%. This was the highest figure since the surveys began in 2002. The 2012 figure remained high at 42%.</p>
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<p>However, these trends have reversed since 2012. The number of collective agreements lodged in 2013 fell to 6,696 and then to 5,673 in 2014. This was the lowest annual number since 1997. </p>
<p>Coverage also fell dramatically to 803,851, close to the long-term average. The percentage of workers whose wages were determined by collective bargaining fell to 41.1%, similar to the numbers for 2006 and 2008.</p>
<p>So, there has been no significant increase in the incidence or coverage of collective bargaining. And the trajectory is downward.</p>
<h2>Increased union power and influence?</h2>
<p>Employers and Coalition MPs <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/power-put-in-unions-hands/story-e6frga66-1225771253082">repeatedly</a> <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/fair-work-act-gives-collective-bargaining-upper-hand-in-workplace/story-e6frgd0x-1226085911439">claimed</a> that the Fair Work Act unfairly advantaged unions and allowed them to use collective bargaining to damage employers and the economy. </p>
<p>It is hard to see evidence of this – for four reasons.</p>
<p>First, union density (that is, membership as a proportion of the total workforce) continues to decline. After initially stabilising around 18% in the years 2010 to 2012, <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6310.0Aug%202005?OpenDocument">density fell</a> to 17% in 2013 and 15% in 2014.</p>
<p>Second, as with its predecessors going back to the Keating government’s 1993 legislation, many collective agreements under the Fair Work Act do not involve a union. These non-union agreements declined in number and coverage in 2011 and 2012, bottoming out at 22.5% of all collective agreements and 5.7% of employees covered.</p>
<p>However, non-union agreements are on the rise again. In 2014, nearly one-third (31.1%) of all new collective agreements were non-union. Coverage was back up to 8.6%. Without a union, it is likely that most of these agreements are not “bargained” at all, but simply drafted by employers and put to a vote.</p>
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<p>Third, within the – increasingly rare – industries where unions remain relatively strong (such as airlines, coal mining, construction and the public sector), there is little evidence that unions have gained much power, despite consistent employer complaints to the contrary. </p>
<p>The Coalition government’s <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/num_act/fwaa2015194/sch1.html">amendments to the Fair Work Act</a> have augmented the already extensive restrictions on unions’ ability to initiate industrial action designed to force employers to engage in bargaining.</p>
<p>It <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/workplace-relations#report">has been argued</a> that unions have been able to use the Act to expand their bargaining agenda and to attack managerial prerogatives. However, there is little evidence that this is widespread.</p>
<p>Finally, the number of industrial disputes <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/workplace-relations#report">is tiny</a>.</p>
<p>Exaggerations of union influence and the failure to acknowledge how the Fair Work Act assists employer power make the allegations (or, for supporters, the promise) of a substantial increase in union power implausible.</p>
<h2>Has co-operation in the workplace flourished?</h2>
<p>The former Labor government <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/politics/gillard-explains-fair-work-bill/story-e6frgczf-1111118135706">argued that</a> the Fair Work Act’s collective bargaining provisions would deliver greater workplace co-operation and corresponding improvements in productivity.</p>
<p>The main part of the Act that was supposed to promote co-operation was the set of obligations imposed on unions – and especially employers – to bargain in “good faith”. Somehow, it was expected that forcing the parties to bargain with each other would magically result in them co-operating to improve relationships and productivity.</p>
<p>There is no evidence that this is happening.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/sites/admingmreporting/forsyth.pdf">Good-faith bargaining provisions</a> have brought some previously recalcitrant parties to the bargaining table and improved the civility, process and orderliness of bargaining.</p>
<p>But this is lowest-common-denominator stuff. The bargaining process is distributive and adversarial, rather than integrative and co-operative. To build genuine co-operation, greater support is required than just good-faith bargaining.</p>
<p>Some movement in this direction has been achieved by the Fair Work Commission’s <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/annual_reports/fwc-ar-2015-web.pdf">New Approaches agenda</a>, in which tribunal members have worked intensively with disputing parties and brought them together. Events at <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/engagement/case-studies/Syd-Water-Case-Study-2015.pdf">Sydney Water</a> and <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/engagement/case-studies/Orora-Case-Study-2015.pdf">Orora Fibre Packaging</a> are two good examples.</p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>These admirable and novel developments, however, require far more resources than the Fair Work Commission can throw at them.</p>
<p>Perhaps more importantly, they require governments to recognise that achieving genuine co-operation in Australian workplaces is difficult, and provisions like good-faith bargaining – as useful as they may be – are insufficient.</p>
<p>We are unlikely to hear much about the reality of collective bargaining under the Fair Work Act in the shrill debates about industrial relations laws and policies over coming months. More’s the pity.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other pieces in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/changing-face-of-unions">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57218/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Bray has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the NSW Industrial Relations Society (Newcastle Branch), and the Fair Work Commission. A longer version of this article will be published as a chapter in the forthcoming book ‘Industrial Relations Reform: Looking to the Future’ by Federation Press.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johanna Macneil has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the NSW Industrial Relations Society (Newcastle Branch), and the Fair Work Commission. A longer version of this article will be published as a chapter in the forthcoming book ‘Industrial Relations Reform: Looking to the Future’ by Federation Press.</span></em></p>The Fair Work Act delivers a much more peculiar system of collective bargaining than many realise. It has outcomes that contradict the hopes and fears of both sides of the IR debate.Mark Bray, Emeritus Professor, University of NewcastleJohanna Macneil, Professor of People, Organisation and Work, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/572022016-04-28T20:13:47Z2016-04-28T20:13:47ZSorting the gems from the dung in the royal commission on union corruption<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120116/original/image-20160426-22369-146169x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Attorney-General George Brandis announce the findings of the trade union royal commission in December 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Mick Tsikas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Open up <a href="https://www.tradeunionroyalcommission.gov.au/reports/Documents/InterimReportVol2.pdf">volume two</a> of the report of the <a href="https://www.tradeunionroyalcommission.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx">Royal Commission into Trade Union Corruption and Governance</a>, and the first substantive thing you encounter is an unattributed poem – about blackmail. </p>
<p>Written before the first world war, it was seen as an argument against peace with future enemies. By placing it here, commissioner Dyson Heydon consciously likens unions, particularly the Maritime Union of Australia, to Viking raiders and says that if you give in to union demands once, they will keep coming back until you finally defeat them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118112/original/image-20160411-21959-fjs88a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118112/original/image-20160411-21959-fjs88a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118112/original/image-20160411-21959-fjs88a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118112/original/image-20160411-21959-fjs88a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118112/original/image-20160411-21959-fjs88a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118112/original/image-20160411-21959-fjs88a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118112/original/image-20160411-21959-fjs88a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The poem that opens volume 2 of the royal commission report.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Original by Rudyard Kipling</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s hardly an unbiased view of trade unions in 21st century Australia. Nor is it the only <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/31/hes-staying-no-bias-dyson-heydon-slices-his-reasons-deli-thin">hint</a> of <a href="https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/senator-stephen-conroy-exposes-heydons-full-links-to-the-liberal-party,8079">bias</a> in the <a href="https://winstonclose.me/2016/01/19/royal-commission-proposes-major-attack-despite-its-weak-findings-written-by-steph-price/">report</a> <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-22/long-why-is-no-one-questioning-the-turc-narrative/6868102">nor</a> <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/industrial-relations/turc-clears-shorten-does-itself-no-favours/news-story/c5824a23aecbdf56309bb39b33f2b8a8">in</a> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/apr/06/return-to-sender-unions-royal-commission-apologises-over-privacy-blunder">its</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/heydons-email-trail-for-barwick-dinner-made-its-liberal-connections-clear-from-the-start-46211">behaviour</a>.</p>
<p>And why should it be unbiased? A royal commission is not a court, it is an <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-22/long-why-is-no-one-questioning-the-turc-narrative/6868102">arm of the executive government</a>, or what Heydon called an “administrative inquiry”. A royal commission report is like a huge, and very expensive, consultancy report. </p>
<p>Lobby groups and governments use consultancy reports because they give the aura of third-party endorsement to things others want to do. Marketers <a href="http://articles.bplans.com/the-astonishing-power-of-3rd-party-endorsements/">refer to</a> third-party endorsements as “one of the most powerful forces in the universe for anyone marketing a product”. They promise <a href="http://ivyworldwide.com/services/third-party-endorsement/">“campaigns to obtain third-party endorsement”</a> and to <a href="http://ivyworldwide.com/about-us/">“build trust through third-party influencers”</a>. </p>
<p>Journalists, with some <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/dark-art-of-econometrics/2007/08/26/1188066946510.html?page=fullpage">noble</a> <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/fact-checker/is-tony-abbotts-cop-on-the-beat-worth-6-billion-20130828-2spkd.html">exceptions</a>, rarely challenge the assumptions of consultancy reports providing third-party endorsements. </p>
<p>A report produced by royal commission is even better. Its <a href="https://www.tradeunionroyalcommission.gov.au/reports/Documents/Final-Report/Volume-1/V1-Introduction.docx">“expressions of opinion”</a> endorsing a particular agenda have a judicial aura. They <a href="http://insidestory.org.au/a-rocky-road-for-unwary-royal-commissioners">“attract public confidence as being impartial, non-political and independent”</a>. But, in the end, they are written by an arm of the executive, not the judiciary.</p>
<h2>Why focus on unions?</h2>
<p>And there are much bigger fish to fry than trade unions. Lawbreaking within the 7-Eleven franchise chain might reportedly total <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/7eleven-compensation-wage-bill-may-top-100-million-20160408-go1eo7.html">A$100 million</a>, though there is little sign the <a href="http://www.domain.com.au/news/7eleven-supremo-beverley-barlow-buys-20-million-recordsmashing-brighton-mansion-20150529-ghbdr7/">mansions</a> or <a href="http://www.afr.com/brand/rear-window/7eleven-boss-russ-withers-buys-new-private-jet-20150929-gjxifn">private jets</a> of the owners are at risk. </p>
<p>This dwarfs what seems the largest amount at issue in the royal commission – the <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/exhsu-secretary-kathy-jackson-ordered-to-pay-13m-compo-for-misusing-union-funds/news-story/b16b3fab2804bb9c1bc9c81fe94a796d">$1.4 million</a> that “whistleblower” Kathy Jackson was ordered to repay, with workers perhaps missing out on <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/workers-amazed-that-kathy-jacksons-hsu-got-250000-payment-20140729-zy4h4.html">$2 million</a> of back-pay from her activities. </p>
<p>Other recent issues include an alleged <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/commonwealth-bank-staff-implicated-in-alleged-76m-fraud-20160204-gmllia.html">$76 million</a> Ponzi scheme operating out of a major bank, a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/no-jail-for-two-men-involved-170-million-home-loan-fraud-20151216-glonif.html">$170 million</a> home-loan fraud scheme, allegations of interest rate rigging over two years netting <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-06/asic-hauls-westpac-into-court-on-rate-rigging-regulations/7302340">$12 million</a> profit in just one day, <a href="http://warfield.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/pub2.pdf">$164 million</a> of employee fraud attributed to gambling addictions, <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2016/the-bribe-factory/day-1/leighton-news.html">“tens of millions” of dollars</a> bribes paid by an Australian construction company, <a href="http://asic.gov.au/for-business/your-business/small-business/compliance-for-small-business/small-business-illegal-phoenix-activity/">$655 million</a> per year in unpaid wages and entitlements by “phoenix” corporations, including in construction, untold losses in tax avoidance <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-04/explained-what-are-the-leaked-mossack-fonseca-panama-papers/7270690">through the use of offshore entities</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/electoral-commission-makes-a-stand-on-liberal-breaches-of-nsw-donations-laws-56920">politics</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/the-education-free-for-all/7308006#transcript">more</a>. </p>
<p>Yet that bias, and the ignoring by government of worse evils, does not mean that unions can avoid dealing with the issue – because the potential impacts on them are important.</p>
<h2>The effects on unions</h2>
<p>To assess the effects on union, we should consider what research tells us are the reasons people join and leave unions, or do not do so.</p>
<p>Workers’ views about union membership are heavily <a href="http://www.legacy-irc.csom.umn.edu/faculty/jbudd/research/firstexposure.pdf">shaped by experience</a>. So, in unionised workplaces – especially those with delegates – views about success or failure of the union will shape what people do. </p>
<p>The things that are under the <a href="http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/30100/59865_1.pdf?sequence=1">influence of unions</a> are several times more important than the things under the influence of management in determining union effectiveness. They are, to a significant extent, inoculated from the royal commission’s discourse.</p>
<p>In non-union workplaces, on the other hand, many workers have no personal experience of a union. They are much more influenced by what others, including the media, tell them. It is harder for an individual union to directly determine that. Non-unionists may be more influenced by the royal commission’s narrative, and by perceptions of whether unions are corrupt, self-serving or the like.</p>
<p>There has been a significant drop in <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/ProductsbyCatalogue/A8CAED8E5F9FB2E1CA257F1F00044E8C?OpenDocument">union membership</a> in the last couple of years, even after accounting for some oddities in the data. The data suggest, though, that it is not due to a drop in people joining unions but to a <a href="https://www.workplaceexpress.com.au/nl06_news_selected.php?act=2&stream=1&selkey=54130&hlc=2&hlw=peetz&s_keyword=peetz&s_searchfrom_date=631112400&s_searchto_date=1460434031&s_pagesize=20&s_word_match=2&s_articles=1">growing number of exits</a> from unions, especially among people who have joined in the last few years. </p>
<p>This suggests that the effort that has gone into recruitment has not been matched by retention – and also that the royal commission’s narrative is not causing most of the recent drop in union membership. But it still might.</p>
<p>Changes in union density, over the longer term, have <a href="http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/7068/21175_1.pdf?sequence=1">not been driven</a> by changes in public approval of unions. However, as the number of non-unionists increases, such attitudes become more important. And if some of the royal commission’s recommendations are adopted, the power of unions in unionised workplaces would decline – and that would affect union membership there as well. </p>
<p>If unions are unable to overcome the royal commission’s narrative and develop an effective response, the decline will likely continue and worsen.</p>
<h2>The union response</h2>
<p>Unions need to work out which of the recommendations are worth considering – to sort out the gems from the dung. </p>
<p>Amid all the bias, including unacceptable recommendations for parliamentary control of a specific union, or increased right of entry requirements penalties for breaches, there are some worth supporting. These include for expanded disclosure requirements, retaining minutes, and mandating financial management training.</p>
<p>Others could be accepted with modifications, to focus on fiduciary duty rather than industrial behaviour. <a href="https://www.workplaceexpress.com.au/nl06_news_selected.php?act=2&stream=13-1&selkey=54214&hlc=2&hlw=">Some observers</a> have given close attention to what is worth supporting and <a href="https://workplaceinfo.com.au/industrial-relations/unions/analysis/was-the-union-royal-commission-really-worth-it#.Vx9chKNcSko">why or why not</a>. </p>
<p>Unions also must take action against corruption in their own ranks. The trouble is, the Australian Council of Trade Unions has minimal power over affiliates. That means individual unions must have mechanisms in place for good governance. Many do. But it’s clear that some greedy individuals have created ammunition for the opponents of unionism.</p>
<p>Members have a right to a decent say in what their own union does. Research shows democratic unionism is <a href="http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/30100/59865_1.pdf?sequence=1">essential for union growth</a>, and democratic unionism is impossible if there is corruption. </p>
<p>Unions must also be seen to be doing the right thing, because that’s going to influence future recruitment into unions. </p>
<p>Many of the recommendations are not about improving democracy in unions. Much of the government response is not that way either. The defeated legislation to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission, for example, would deal with neither <a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-back-building-watchdog-helps-a-political-agenda-but-not-concerns-about-union-corruption-54051">corruption</a> nor <a href="http://johnmenadue.com/blog/?p=6121">productivity</a>, and targets one industry. Whatever compulsory interrogations of building workers do, they don’t make unions more democratic. </p>
<p>The Registered Organisations legislation creates fines for ordinary union members and, given the ability and track record of government in making heavily biased appointments in industrial relations, runs the risk of establishing another partisan body targeting unions rather than improving governance.</p>
<p>It’s very clear that unions aren’t the only site in public life where corruption exists. But it’s harder for unions to point to those other areas of corruption if the media is focused on bad governance in unions. No matter how biased the report, and despite the fact that the media hold union officials to much higher standards than they hold others in positions of greater power, unions must confront governance problems in their ranks. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.actu.org.au/media/886480/leaders-forum-2016-program-summary.pdf">Like</a> organising, digital campaigning, recruitment of young workers, retention, better use of data and developing narratives, it is a part of <a href="http://workinglife.org.au/2015/11/16/reinventing-unions-in-the-age-of-disruption/">“reinventing”</a> unions and needs to be included in that agenda. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other pieces in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/changing-face-of-unions">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57202/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Peetz receives funding from the Australian Research Council and, as a university employee, has undertaken research over many years with occasional financial support from governments from both sides of politics in Australia and overseas, employers and unions.</span></em></p>Unions may well feel justifiably aggrieved by the findings – and impact – of the trade union royal commission, but there are nonetheless lessons to be learnt from them.David Peetz, Professor of Employment Relations, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/574762016-04-27T00:44:56Z2016-04-27T00:44:56ZHow the influence of trade unions on the Labor Party is overestimated<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118850/original/image-20160415-11461-2nack7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Transport Workers' Union is one of the three most influential unions within the ALP. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Josephine Lim</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Australian Labor Party was formed by trade unions in the 1890s. It is one of a small number in the world where unions affiliate directly with the party. This gives the unions significant representation in the party’s internal structures and forums, and influence in choice of parliamentary candidates. </p>
<p>Organisational integration facilitates the convergence of ideology and personnel. The relationship provides mutual benefits through influence on party policy for the unions, and financial and personnel resources for electoral campaigns.</p>
<h2>How has the relationship changed over time?</h2>
<p>In the early 1900s, most unions were affiliated with the ALP. These were predominantly blue-collar unions, but with the decline in manufacturing their significance has shrunk.</p>
<p>From the 1960s, unionisation of white-collar and professional workers grew rapidly. The <a href="http://www.anmfvic.asn.au/">nurses’ union</a> is now the largest in Australia, and the public sector is the main base of union membership. </p>
<p>However, many white-collar, professional and public sector unions – the nurses’, teachers’, academics’ and state public service unions – have not affiliated to the ALP. The “typical” union member is now a white-collar professional and likely to be a member of an unaffiliated union.</p>
<p>Union membership has fallen from a peak of about 60% of the workforce in 1954 to 15% today. This international phenomenon has motivated some weakening of the connection between labour or social democratic parties and unions everywhere. </p>
<p>Unions’ political capital has therefore declined, as they are more easily cast as one interest group among many. So, reforming the unions-party relationship has been an issue in ALP forums since 1979, most recently under Bill Shorten’s leadership. However, change has been limited. </p>
<p>The proportion of former union officials who are ALP members of parliament has also declined. In 1901 former union officials accounted for 79% of federal parliamentary party members. This has declined to 45%. </p>
<p>This is still a high proportion given the level of union membership in the community, but figures are deceptive. Unlike in 1901, most former union officials in the parliamentary party have limited experience as workers in the industry their union covers. More commonly, they have been appointed as professional union or political operatives after university. </p>
<h2>Do different unions deal with the party differently?</h2>
<p>Unaffiliated unions, representing perhaps a majority now, do not have direct input into the ALP’s forums and processes. Few Labor MPs are former union officials from these unions.</p>
<p>However, even among affiliated unions, there is a small number that wield the greatest clout within the party. </p>
<p>Almost half of the former union members who are federal parliamentary party members come from just three unions: the <a href="http://www.sda.org.au/">Shop Distributive and Allied Industries Union</a> (seven), <a href="http://www.twu.com.au/">Transport Workers’ Union</a> (five) and the <a href="http://www.asu.asn.au/">Australian Services Union</a> (five). </p>
<h2>How much power do they have in the party?</h2>
<p>Affiliated unions have substantial influence in the ALP. They influence party policy and its implementation by “quiet” internal lobbying through party structures, and close association and convergence of union and party elites. Clearly, unions with blocs of parliamentary members have an advantage in this regard. </p>
<p>Affiliated unions also account for 50% of delegates at federal and state party conferences that determine policy. This was reduced from 60% in 2003, but it remains a focal point for those wishing to reduce union influence in the party.</p>
<p>However, union power within the ALP is often exaggerated. Unions never vote as a single bloc at conferences. Decision-making in the party is <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/sunday-explainer-the-factions-running-the-alp-20150618-ghryk0.html">dominated by formalised factions</a> – mainly the “Socialist Left” and “Centre Unity” – which spawn numerous sub-factions. </p>
<p>The factions are unified less by ideology nowadays, but have been characterised as clans that distribute influence and rewards. This has <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/australian-politics/labors-conflict-big-business-workers-and-politics-class?format=PB">contributed to</a> a centralisation of power within a professional political elite and a reduction in the role of rank-and-file party members, from both branches and unions. </p>
<p>Unions have perennially complained that, once in parliament, former officials develop different or broader perspectives, because of the need to balance competing political and community interests, especially when the ALP forms government. It has often been claimed that the influence runs from the party to the unions, rather than vice versa. </p>
<p>This tendency is exacerbated by parliamentary members rarely coming through the ranks of unions now, even if they have worked with them for a period.</p>
<p>Insofar as there is a problem with union power within the ALP, it derives from influential unions not being representative of unions as a whole.</p>
<h2>Shorten and the unions</h2>
<p>Unions remain Australia’s largest representative civic institutions. Their membership far exceeds those who regularly attend religious services of any denomination. </p>
<p>About 20% of non-union members report that they would join unions if they had the opportunity. Surveys show that more than 60% of the population believe unions are important for working people, with almost half believing workers would be better off if unions were stronger. Unions also collectively represent <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/6306.0Main%20Features2May%202014?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=6306.0&issue=May%202014&num=&view=">60% of the workforce</a> in bargaining for conditions through enterprise agreements and/or awards.</p>
<p>Union membership was similar to now when the ALP was formed, but this did not prevent it from developing a major electoral base. The ability of all unions, including the unaffiliated, to organise effective grassroots campaigns in the electorates under ACTU leadership was <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2010.00788.x/abstract">clearly demonstrated</a> by the Your Rights at Work Campaign that brought the ALP to power in 2007. </p>
<p>The Coalition attempts to depict union association as a negative after the <a href="https://www.tradeunionroyalcommission.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx">trade union royal commission</a>, but Shorten does not appear to have lost credibility after his appearance before the commission. The commission’s findings regarding corruption were slight, relating mainly to one union. The final report’s assertion that it had uncovered the “tip of an iceberg” of widespread corruption was not based on evidence.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other pieces in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/changing-face-of-unions">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57476/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Markey is a member of the National Tertiary Education Union, which is not affiliated with the ALP.. </span></em></p>While trade unions still exert some influence on the ALP, it is nowhere near as much as it once was.Ray Markey, Director of the Centre for Workforce Futures, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/572082016-04-26T20:14:06Z2016-04-26T20:14:06ZWhy wooing women is the way forward for trade unions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119191/original/image-20160419-5310-6r0j9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">ACTU president Ged Kearney is one of the 38.5% of Australian union secretaries who is female.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If I asked you to picture the typical Australian union member, my guess is that an image of a burly fellow in a hard hat, steel cap boots and stubbies would come to mind. If I then asked you to imagine a unionised workplace, your association may be with building sites or assembly lines.</p>
<p>This is understandable, particularly given the high-rotation media coverage in the past couple of years of machinations within and around key blue-collar unions. It is also in keeping with the longer-run history of trade unionism in Australia where, until reasonably recently, the most highly organised sectors and the most visible and vocal unionists were men hailing from blue-collar workplaces. </p>
<p>These images, however, are out of step with the make-up of trade unions in 2016. </p>
<p>Unions have suffered a catastrophic collapse in membership and union density. The proportion of wage and salary earners who are members has plummeted from its high-water mark of 60% in the immediate post-war years. The most <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6333.0">recently released ABS data</a> suggest that just 15% of all Australian employees, and a mere 11% of those employed in the private sector, are members.</p>
<p>Aggregate membership has also been in freefall, and unions now count just 1.7 million people among their ranks. </p>
<p>These changes have been associated with a significant reconfiguration of how men and women are represented within unions. The graph below shows the collapse in membership density during the past two decades. Overall density fell by almost 30 percentage points during this time.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119586/original/image-20160421-8017-1uyah5k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119586/original/image-20160421-8017-1uyah5k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119586/original/image-20160421-8017-1uyah5k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119586/original/image-20160421-8017-1uyah5k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119586/original/image-20160421-8017-1uyah5k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119586/original/image-20160421-8017-1uyah5k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119586/original/image-20160421-8017-1uyah5k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119586/original/image-20160421-8017-1uyah5k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For men the fall was even more stark (43% to 14%). Women’s density fell too, although more steadily and off a lower base (35% to 16%). Women are, as a result, more highly unionised than are their male colleagues for the first time since national union data was collected.</p>
<p>Unionism’s “heartlands” have also changed. Many of the most highly unionised sectors, like education and training, and occupations such as nurses and midwives are feminised. Industries where union membership has trended upward over the past decade <a href="http://jir.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/04/13/0022185615571982.abstract">are feminised</a> (such as social welfare and assistance).</p>
<p>Whereas 20 years ago there was a 60/40 split in male membership of unions, women now represent slightly under 50% of all members. I will not be surprised to see female membership overtake men’s on the next ABS data.</p>
<p>When I began my PhD research in the mid-1990s, women were typically referred to in the international and Australian academic literature as “marginal trade unionists” and considered hard to organise. So, the status of this group – along with “young people” and “casuals” – was cited as a key reason for membership decline. </p>
<p>But the changes in membership density and in membership share suggest that, if it ever was the case, women are no more “marginal” as union members than their male colleagues.</p>
<p>My research suggest that there is a mismatch between these significant changes and the leadership, culture and “business” of unions. There is a clear gendered hierarchy, not dissimilar to that seen in organisations in the private and public sector within unions. </p>
<p>Despite being roughly half of all union members, and taking an even larger share of (unpaid) union delegate or representative roles in unionised workplaces, significant gaps emerge in women’s representation in more senior and strategic roles. For example, on 2015 Australian Council of Trade Unions data, 38.5% of union secretaries – the most senior and powerful leaders within the movement – are women. </p>
<p>Women’s representation in these roles has grown during the past 15 years – for example, just 23% of secretaries were women in 1999 – but the dial has moved considerably less than in relation to women’s share of union membership.</p>
<p><a href="http://jir.sagepub.com/content/54/2/131.abstract">My 2012 study</a> of female paid officials of unions suggested that, despite high levels of commitment to union work and enjoyment of many aspects of the job, women working within the union movement keenly felt they were under-represented in senior roles. </p>
<p>Additionally, women reported sexism and a “masculinist” culture as being alive and well within their union workplaces. This culture, they believed, had a strong impact on union “business” such as collective bargaining and other industrial agendas. In particular, they reported that issues perceived as “women’s issues” (pay equity, work and care, discrimination) were marginalised from what were framed as true “industrial”, and therefore important, union issues.</p>
<p>Women are now well and truly in the mainstream, not at the margins, of union membership. The challenge for unions, in the context of a significantly gendered reconfiguration of union membership, is to make themselves more relevant to their new heartland. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other pieces in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/changing-face-of-unions">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rae Cooper has received funding for her research from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the University of Sydney as well as a number of public and private sector organisations. In 2015 she undertook funded research for the ACTU on women's representation in unions.
. </span></em></p>Female workers are now more highly unionised than their male colleagues, but unions still have a long way to go to reflect that shift.Rae Cooper, Associate Dean, University of Sydney Business School, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/572092016-04-22T00:42:37Z2016-04-22T00:42:37ZThey’re the voice: how workers can be heard when unions are on the wane<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119201/original/image-20160419-5287-1o6to7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Regardless of the channels through which it is done, most employees want to have a say in how their workplaces are run.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Employee “voice” is often heralded as a core characteristic of high-performing, innovative workplaces and as an antecedent to employee engagement. </p>
<p>As Australian workplaces face ever present challenges to increase productivity and innovation, it is no surprise that employee voice is a core consideration. But what happens in workplaces where there are significant power differentials between employer and employees? And what happens where trade unions are absent from the employment relationship? </p>
<h2>How workers can best be heard</h2>
<p>Employee voice is best encapsulated as the means by which employees are involved and participate in matters that affect them at work. Employee voice therefore has a procedural dimension – the channel by which voice is expressed – and a substantive dimension, which is the extent to which voice shapes and impacts on workplace outcomes. </p>
<p>The channels by which employee voice is expressed can be direct or indirect. The latter expresses voice through an intermediary (collective representation), whether union or non-union.</p>
<p>As Australian union membership has steadily declined over the last 30 years, employee voice channels have shifted away from collective, largely unionised channels to direct channels, such as team briefings and semi-autonomous teams. This trend is hardly surprising. The most <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/MediaRealesesByCatalogue/A4A44798D68CAFB9CA257EEA000C5421?OpenDocument">recent union membership figures</a> show that members account for 15% of the workforce. </p>
<p>Does this render the remaining 85% of the workforce silent? Evidence would suggest not.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100146550">series of</a> representation and participation surveys in Australia, modelled on similar surveys undertaken in, among others, the US, Britain and Canada, reveal that employees have fared well with the shift to direct voice. </p>
<p>Direct voice is linked with positive organisational outcomes, such as job satisfaction and a better industrial relations climate (co-operative employment relationship). It has also enhanced individual employment outcomes such as trust in management and perceived influence by employees over job rewards.</p>
<p>While Australian evidence paints a positive picture of direct voice, empirical evidence suggests that employee voice is not a zero-sum game. There are plenty of examples of workplaces that derive positive outcomes from multiple voice channels. Such hybrid arrangements might include unionised representatives plus a non-union employee council, or, semi-autonomous teams alongside union representatives. </p>
<p>Across the Anglo-American world, <a href="http://www.academia.edu/14907959/Trust_in_management_the_role_of_employee_voice_arrangements_and_perceived_managerial_opposition_to_unions">a parallel trend</a> to the increase in direct employee voice has been an increase in the expression of employee voice through non-union representation. </p>
<p>The “never-member” problem – the majority of the workforce never having joined unions – is one explanation for the rise in non-union employee representation.</p>
<h2>How do trade unions fit in with employee ‘voice’?</h2>
<p>In the context of a decline in union membership, and as Australian unions seek to revitalise and redefine their relevance following the damning royal commission, effective provision of unionised voice must remain at the heart of any strategic repositioning. </p>
<p>Recent developments in employee voice are therefore instructive in driving trade unions’ initiatives and strategies to rebuild voice for workers.</p>
<p>First, while there may be many winners of the shift to direct and non-union representative voice in professional services and managerial occupations, unions can still leverage power imbalances and the “voice gap” in precarious employment to ensure employees’ voices are resoundingly heard. Childcare work is a powerful example, due to precarious work arrangements, the feminisation of the workforce, and low pay.</p>
<p>Second, the nuance of union voice must continue to evolve over time. Unions must focus on positive expressions of voice to improve job design, productivity and performance, rather than just on the negative dimension of voice, such as worker dissatisfaction or a grievance. Workplace safety, learning and training remain powerful examples of the positive expression of union voice.</p>
<p>Third, and linked to the first point, hybrid voice arrangements must consider other societal agents who express voice for precarious workers such as public servants. These agents may complement the traditional, more instrumental voice of unions in representing workers, extending voice to issues of identity and advocacy, such as age or disability by way of example. </p>
<p>However, challenges to public servants and the legitimacy of civil service organisations, due to an absence of democratic foundations, may provide a challenge to enlarging union voice in this way.</p>
<h2>Why voice matters</h2>
<p>Irrespective of the channels through which voice is expressed, most employees want the opportunity and expect “a say” in matters that affect them at work. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.academia.edu/14907959/Trust_in_management_the_role_of_employee_voice_arrangements_and_perceived_managerial_opposition_to_unions">Empirical evidence in Australia</a> would suggest that most employees perceive that their desire for voice is fulfilled through the availability of channels. However, the mere presence of voice channels is not enough. The outcomes of voice must also be effective.</p>
<p>As Australian workplaces and unions strive to constantly improve, innovate and progress, it is important to remember that much of the growth in employee voice is informal. This means there are more and more interactions between employers and employees that subsequently provide opportunities for information dissemination, consultation and idea generation.</p>
<p>In this respect, the day-to-day relations between employers, employees and unions remain fundamental to the nature and experience of employee voice. </p>
<p>It is in the complex and enduring power relationships that underpin employment that unions can continue to play a pivotal role in ensuring that marginalised or diverse voices are heard. In high-productivity workplaces of the future, effective, meaningful employee voice will be pivotal: characterised by multiple, mutually reinforcing channels where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. </p>
<p>In creating effective employee voice, it is incumbent on organisations, employers, unions and employees that employees do not refrain from speaking up. Volkswagen’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-10/vw-says-only-small-group-to-blame-for-emissions-scandal/7019768">recent emissions scandal</a> provides a timely reminder of unethical practices and the perverse effects of employees’ discretionary behaviour.</p>
<p>The survival of union voice is contingent on an underpinning ethical process, purpose and meaning that enables genuine dialogue and power-sharing with employers, and, in turn, facilitates a competitive edge in Australian workplaces.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other pieces in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/changing-face-of-unions">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57209/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Pyman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even though union membership has dropped to just 15%, unions still have an important role to play in ensuring that workers have meaningful input into how their workplaces are run.Amanda Pyman, Professor of Management, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/572112016-04-20T20:14:12Z2016-04-20T20:14:12ZThe state of the union(s): how a perfect storm weakened the workers’ voices<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118835/original/image-20160415-11420-1lf6n81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Just after the second world war, union membership was almost 65% of the workforce. Now it is just 15%.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>With the Senate again rejecting the government’s bill to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has the triggers he needs for a double-dissolution election on July 2. Unions will be a key issue in the campaign. In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/changing-face-of-unions">series</a> starting today, we take a close look at the history of trade unions in Australia, their political links, why their membership bases eroded and where they need to go from here in order to be a relevant and constructive force in Australian working life.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The governance, conduct and purpose of trade unions in Australia have been the focus of much recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-back-building-watchdog-helps-a-political-agenda-but-not-concerns-about-union-corruption-54051">political debate</a>, not to mention <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/lawyers-enjoy-25-million-windfall-from-unions-royal-commission-20150710-gia0wo.html">public expenditure</a>. Given the level of interest, you could be forgiven for assuming Australia’s union movement is at the height of its power and, as such, a key political and economic issue.</p>
<p>But Australia’s union movement is facing a perfect storm. Union membership is at its lowest point since before federation. Only 15% of employees are <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/MediaRealesesByCatalogue/A4A44798D68CAFB9CA257EEA000C5421?OpenDocument">union members</a> in their main job. That number drops to 11% in the private sector.</p>
<p>This is a far cry from the peak of 64.6% in 1948 and the consistent minimum of close to 40% the union movement enjoyed continuously from <a href="http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/40801/69891_1.pdf?sequence=1">1913 to 1992</a>.</p>
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<p>Union membership has fluctuated over the last century. But, it has plummeted since the early 1990s. What caused this? And what are some of the solutions being raised to stem the decline?</p>
<h2>Falling membership base</h2>
<p>A list of suggested triggers and exacerbating factors has emerged. Many reflect the international trend of union decline in advanced economies – but with an Australian twist. </p>
<p>The Australian system of conciliation and arbitration was born as a “historic compromise” between capital and labour. It was brokered just after federation in an attempt to circumvent industrial unrest, particularly in the maritime and agriculture sectors. </p>
<p>It enshrined a system in which representation of worker and employer interests was formally institutionalised. This led to growth in the number of unions, as well as unions’ significant engagement with – if not reliance on – the arbitration system.</p>
<p>The demise of the “blue-collar working class” and structural change that reduced the Australian manufacturing sector, beginning in the mid-1970s, struck at the heart of male-dominated union membership. The move towards a service-based economy further aggravated the situation. Unions lagged in attempts to organise low-paid female-dominated sectors.</p>
<p>It has been suggested that this factor was the king-hit for Australian unionism. But political and regulatory change arguably amplified its impact.</p>
<p>The election of the Hawke Labor government and the inception of the Accord between it and unions (via the ACTU) in 1983 could be seen as a high point of union political power. Though theoretically a tripartite agreement including employers, under the Accord unions essentially negotiated with the government to determine wage claims in exchange for improvements to the social wage through Medicare, superannuation and changes to tertiary education. </p>
<p>The Accord era undoubtedly placed Australian unions close to the heart of national policymaking. But that influence had currency only while Labor was in power. And it was not consistent even across the life of the Hawke/Keating governments.</p>
<p>Some argue that the Accord accelerated the decline in union membership (by more than 15% during the Accord years of 1983 to 1996) and reinforced union dependency on the state at the expense of rank-and-file activism. Also, the amalgamation process that began in the late 1980s – which was intended to provide economies of scale in “super-unions” – weakened many unions’ occupational identity.</p>
<h2>What’s happened recently?</h2>
<p>Regulatory change (beginning in the Accord years and ongoing), which decentralised bargaining and gradually dismantled the arbitration system, has relegated unions to the political and economic periphery. </p>
<p>A situation has emerged where unions cannot effectively challenge the proliferation of “non-standard” work arrangements – such as increased casualisation and independent contracting. As a result, unions are institutionally marginalised. Paradoxically, their capacity to effect change on the ground through membership power is limited by the difficulties in organising “non-standard” workers. </p>
<p>Australian unions have faced an increasingly hostile political environment which has fuelled regulatory change. This began with the Howard government’s notorious WorkChoices framework, which privileged individual bargaining, limited union access to workplaces and imposed greater barriers to industrial action. </p>
<p>Unions have not been passive recipients of these changes. They have tried – through amalgamations, the adoption of new organising techniques, and political campaigning – to reverse their fortunes. </p>
<p>But they have faced an almost perfect storm that is set to continue with the disruption of traditional industries and jobs, the intensification of competitive pressures on labour through the implementation of multilateral trade agreements and the political focus on industrial relations reforms.</p>
<p>Regardless of how unions survive this tempest, they will need to innovate and adapt to a continually evolving climate. If not, a key element of Australian social democracy will shrivel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57211/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Kaine is a member of the NTEU.</span></em></p>A diminishing membership base, changes to labour and industry and heightened political attention has left the once-powerful trade union movement flailing.Sarah Kaine, Associate Professor in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.