A strike around a specific employment issue can easily develop a momentum of its own and become a catalyst for a much wider expression of dissatisfaction.
Labor’s candidate for the Batman byelection, Ged Kearney, is a past president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
AAP/David Crosling
Around the world, McDonald’s is known for its staunch and well-resourced attempt to remain ‘union free’.
The first Labor Day was hardly a national holiday. Workers had to strike to celebrate it.
Frank Leslie's Weekly Illustrated Newspaper's September 16, 1882
The holiday began as a strike against excessive workweeks but now bears little resemblance to its worker-centric origins, even as the founders’ gains are slowly lost.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the country’s largest trade union federation, has been losing members.
REUTERS/Rogan Ward
The membership base of South Africa’s trade union movement has undergone significant changes which begs the question: has it moved away from its working class roots to become a middle class movement.
There’s a raging debate in South Africa about the role of its central bank. This is inevitable given that so much is changing in the world of central banking and in economic life.
Despite public perception, figures indicate that white collar workers are more likely to be a member of a union than people working in traditionally blue collar professions.
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South Africa’s newest trade union federation, Saftu, comes at a time of declining political influence by unions, compared to during the struggle against apartheid. They are also seen as elitist.
The Hawke Labor government had a strong incentive to seek a new approach to industrial relations when it came to office.
National Archives of Australia
The Prices and Incomes Accord was a series of agreements between Labor and the ACTU where unions would moderate their wage demands in exchange for improvements in the ‘social wage’.
The ABCC’s reintroduction has little to do with reforming the building and construction industry.
AAP/Dave Hunt
A major shift to an industrial relations model that benefits all parties will only happen with the utmost co-operation of Australian workers, unions and – most crucially – employers.