Decline In Australian Trade Unions example essay topic

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Are Australian trade unions in terminal decline? At 25.7 per cent of the workforce, membership of the Australian trade union movement is now at its lowest level since its official recording began, and this decline does not appear to be showing any signs of relent. Unfortunately, Australian trade unions are in terminal decline. The reasons for this are; a structural shift in the labour market, macroeconomic variables, a shift in institutional and organisational ideologies towards unions, ineffective trade unions, and economic rationalisation within Australian companies. While trade unions have tried to counter this trend through means of amalgamations and rationalisation, recruitment of members and female representation in unions, their attempts have been relatively fruitless. The changing occupational and industrial structure of the Australian workforce has led to a decline in Australian trade unions.

There has been a decline in manufacturing industry, where union membership density has historically been very high, and a growth in white-collar work, where union membership density is relatively low. In 1996 union membership density was 40 per cent amongst blue-collar workers, while it was only 26 per cent amongst white-collar workers (Peetz: 1998, p 208). In recent years, there has been more employment of those industries and jobs where propensity to unionism has been lower. There has also been a change in the proportion of full-time occupation to part-time or casual work. The total percentage of people in part-time work in 1980 was 6.7 per cent.

This had grown to 11.8 per cent in 2000. Between 1999 to 2000, only 17.1 per cent of part-time employees and 10.7 per cent of casual employees were union members (Callus, Lansbury: 2002 p 9). This is partly because their limited attachment to the labour force reduces their expectations of possible utility gains from unionism. Part-time and casual employees are also generally younger than full-time employees, which has had an effect on union membership. Only 14.2 per cent of workers between the age of 15-19 years old are union members, compared to 45.8 per cent of workers over the age of 60.

Their youth "translates into frequent job changing, that is, an exit strategy rather than a voice strategy". (Lowe and Rastin: 2000 p 206) In the 1980's and 1990's the majority of employment growth was in the private sector, where the union density rate was considerably lower than that of the public sector. From 1990-1995, employment in the public sector has decreased by 149,600 employees. Unionisation rates in the private sector are much lower, for reasons explained later (Borland, Ouliaris: 1994, p. 175). Recently, there has been a reduction in the average size of workplaces and firms. In a workplace with less than ten employees the unionisation rate has been 10.5 per cent, while in a workplace with more than one hundred employees the unionisation rate has been 43.7 pre cent.

Smaller workplaces tend to be more flexible and responsive to workers' needs and therefore employees do not feel the need to join trade unions (Lowe, Rastin: 2000, p. 5) Macroeconomic variables, such as the role of unemployment have played a somewhat smaller part in the decline of Australian trade unions. Different authors have taken contrasting views on the role of the unemployment. Results from a study by B arland and Ouliaris (1994) showed that rises in unemployment equate to a fall in union membership rates. While a study by Bod man (1998) showed that high unemployment led to increased union membership rates, because "worker are likely to join unions in the hope of greater job security as unemployment rises". As a result we are unable to draw any conclusions on the role of the unemployed with respect to union decline in Australia. Both unionists and non-unionists shared many of the pecuniary benefits of the Accord, including stronger dismissal protection, more comprehensive superannuation and better Occupational Health and Safety standards.

This created little inducement for employees to join unions and pay union membership fees and may have led to this decline. Recently there has been a shift in the ideology of employers and the state towards unions. The de collectivisation of the employment relationship is being actively pursued by employers and the state. Individual contracts are being promoted by employer associations, individual employers and governments. These direct dealings have supplanted collective dealings through unions. Conservative governments have also played a large part in this decline, by creating legislation, which is detrimental to union membership numbers.

Almost all governments have introduced laws facilitating the use of individual contracts as an alternative to collective regulation. The Victorian Employee Relations Act 1992, is one such example, which abolished awards, prohibited compulsory unionism and abolished the Victorian Industrial Commission and with it the capacity of any body to award preference in employment to union members. (Peetz: 2000, p. 245) The Federal Government has followed this lead through the advent of Australian Award Agreements (AWAs). AWAs permit categories of employees to stand outside the collective system of arbitration. These individual employer-employee agreements, made under section 170 LK of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 have gone from 5 per cent of all agreements in 1997 to 12 per cent by the end of 1999. Their number currently stand at approximately 135,854, they are now growing at a rate of 6,000 a month.

(Cranston: 2000, p. 26) The election of conservative governments have typically coincided with significant losses in union membership. Throughout the Kennett Government's term of office, for example, union membership in Victoria went from 37.8 per cent to 24.4 per cent of employees. While the election of a Liberal Government in South Australia in 1993 corresponded with a similar fall from 44.3 per cent to 30.2 per cent. However, Labor governments have been just as detrimental to trade union membership. The Keating Government's implementation of the Industrial Relations Reform Act 1993, which adopted enterprise bargaining at the Federal level, greatly assisted this trend of deteriorating union membership. Between 1992 and 1996, the Keating Government oversaw a massive eight-and-a-half per cent decline in union membership as a share of all employees, the largest rate of decline to date.

(Cranston: 2000, p. 26) There has also been a change occurring in employers' attitudes in their negotiation with unions. Some of Australia's largest companies are now taking the strongest stands against unions in their corporate history. Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), both of which were once sympathetic to union demands on account of their history of public ownership, are now at the forefront of this new approach. The CBA has become the first bank to offer non-union AWAs to its 28,000 employees. Telstra, having already put most of its upper management on non-union AWAs, is now looking to extend these agreements to the rest of its employees.

A major factor behind the decline in union membership has been the inability of some unions to provide the infrastructure, or to offer protection, assistance and advice at the workplace. Union membership has also declined because unions were inactive in terms of bargaining or were not active in workplace wage determination... In the 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (AIRS 95) union leavers commonly said that unions were ineffectual, had no influence in the workplace or offered no gains to union members. One-third of those who had left the union at their current workplace referred to union ineffectiveness as the reason for non-membership.

A substantial part of the decline in the demand for unionisation during 1977-1984 was attributed to a deterioration of workers' perception of union instrumentality. (Peetz: 2000, p. 364) The widespread infusion of competition into virtually all sectors of the Australian economy has lead to a rationalisation of many workplaces, which has also weakened Australian trade unions. In telecommunications industry, for example, the number of licensed competitors has gone from three in 1996 to 50 in the year 2000. This increasingly intense competitive environment is leading to widespread rationalisation within the industry. In March of 2000, Telstra undertook a $650 million cost-cutting program which aimed to shed 10,000 jobs over the following two years. This rapid and intense restructuring is compounding the demise of the main union within the communications sector, the Communications, Electric and Plumbing Union.

(Cranston: 2000, p. 26) Unions have adopted a number of different strategies in a vain attempt to halt this decline, such as, amalgamations and rationalisation, recruitment of members and female representation in unions. The aim of amalgamations was to generate economies in scale of union activities, which would free up union resources in order to create more efficient union services to its members. However amalgamations have not delivered these promises. Larger unions have had a tendency to lead to larger bureaucracies and less effective management. There have been a series of half-hearted recruitment campaigns by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) throughout the last decade in an attempt to arrest the decline in their numbers. In 1995, for the Organising Works Scheme, the ACTU committed $10 million aimed at recruiting 200,000 new members by mid 1997.

The Unions @ Work scheme aimed at strengthening delegate and membership activism in the workplace, devoting resources to organising new workplaces and industries where jobs are growing. Unfortunately for unions these two schemes have done little to restrain the decline in union numbers. Australian trade unions have historically been unsuccessful in attracting female members. This is because unions have been slow to formulate policies and services such as discrimination and harassment, child care and flexible working hours, which have been more important to female employees. Until Australian trade unions address these deficiencies they will have difficulty in attracting female workers. In conclusion, while trade unions have tried to counter the decline in their numbers through means of amalgamations and rationalisation, recruitment of members and female representation in unions, their attempts have been relatively fruitless.

Such reasons as; a structural shift in the labour market, macroeconomic variables, a shift in institutional and organisational ideologies towards unions, ineffective trade unions and economic rationalisation within Australian companies, have meant that trade unions are definately entering a phase of terminal decline.