Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T09:08:40.566Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

State of the Union: An Assessment of Union Strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

R. Lambert
R. Lambert*
Affiliation:
Department of Industrial Relations, University of Western Australia
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Accelerating global economic change reflected in the high degree of capital mobility and integrated global markets has intensified investment competition between states. The union movement reacted through a commitment to strategic unionism and award restructuring. However, the impact of the latter has been limited by the occupationally divided structure of Australian unions. The paper analyses attempts to change this structure through union amalgamations and considers the impact inter-union power struggles, shaped by factional alignments, have had on the process. The paper assesses the organizational problems of conglomerate unionism and evaluates possible counters to likely tendencies.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , December 1991 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1991

References

Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), (1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Future Strategies for the Trade Union Movement, September.Google Scholar
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), (1990).Google Scholar
Summary of Union Restructuring Proposals by Industry and by Union, October.Google Scholar
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), (1991).Google Scholar
ACTU Policies and Strategies as adopted at the 1991 ACTU Congress, September.Google Scholar
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) & The Department of Trade &. Commerce (TDC) (1987) Australia Reconstructed, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) (1991) Workplace: The ACTU Magazine, Autumn.Google Scholar
Australian Industrial Relations Commission, (1991) The National Wage Case, October, M Print KO300.Google Scholar
Business Council of Australia, (BCA) (1989), Enterprise Based Bargaining Units: A Better Way of Working.Google Scholar
Business Council of Australia (BCA) (1991), Avoiding Industrial Action: A Better Way of Working, August.Google Scholar
Building Workers Industrial Union (BWIU), (1989) Can Unions Survive? Melbourne, September.Google Scholar
Camp, R.C. (1989) Benchmarking — The Search for Industry Best Practices that lead to Superior Performance, Quality Press, Milwaukie.Google Scholar
Commonwealth Department of Industrial Relations, (1991) The Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (AWIRS), Industrial Relations at Work, Canberra.Google Scholar
Costa, M., Duffy, M. (1991), Labor, Prosperity & the Nineties: Beyond the Bonsai Economy, Federation Press, Sydney.Google Scholar
Dowling, P., Schuler, R. (?) ‘Human Resource Management’ in Blanpain, R (ed) Comparative Labor Law & Industrial Relations in Industrialized Market Economies, Vol.2, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Ford, B., Plowman, D. (1989) Australian Unions: An Industrial Relations Perspective, MacMillan, Australia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, M., Palmer, G. (1991 Employment Relations: Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management in Australia, Macmillan, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Geare, A. (1991) Employment Contracts Act 1991, Discussion Papers, Department of Economics, University of Otago, Dunedin, June.Google Scholar
Harvey, D. (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity, Basil Blackwell, London.Google Scholar
Kramer, R. (1991) Human Resource Management: Prospects for the 1990s, Industrial Relations Working Papers, School of Industrial Relations & Organizational Behaviour, University of New South Wales, March.Google Scholar
Martin, R. M. (1981) Trade Unions in Australia, Penguin, Australia.Google Scholar
Mathews, J. (1989) Tools of Change: New Technology & the Democratization of Work, Pluto Press, Sydney.Google Scholar
Plowman, D. (1991) Arresting Union Decline: Membership Retention & Recruitment Strategies, ?.Google Scholar
Plowman, D. (1991) The Demise of New Protection Wages, ?.Google Scholar
Stewart, R.G. (1991) ‘Trade Unions as Agents of Change’, in Social Alternatives, April.Google Scholar
Storey, J. (1989) New Perspectives on Human Resource Management, Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Thompson, P., McHugh, D. (1990) Work Organisations, MacMillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Touraine, A., Wieviorka, M., Dubet, F. , (1987) The Workers' Movement, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar