Search

What has come to be known as the 'dependency' theory of Australian trade-union development is associated with William Howard, whose work draws on the experience of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration (the Court) under its second president, Henry Bournes Higgins. Central to this theory is that unions had no need to organize at the workplace as they acquired 'de facto recognition' in their dealings with employers once registered under arbitration legislation. This paper explores two related assumptions that underpin Howard's thesis. First is that under arbitration the role of Australian unions was limited to facilitating the Court's dispute-settling function; the second, a corollary of the first, relates specifically to the benefits accruing to unions and their members upon registration under the Act. Both removed the need for unions to develop strong workplace organization and be responsive to members' needs; hence Howard's description of Australian unions as 'cogs in the bureaucratic machine'. The paper concludes that there is merit in the second assumption but not the first, given the collaborative relationship that developed between Higgins and Australian unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Just transition’ (JT) is an increasingly popular concept developed by unions and adopted and adapted by academics, environmentalists, government and non-governmental organizations, and international institutions in recognition of the need to address social concerns and inequities emerging from efforts to address environmental problems. It has been noted, however, that ‘JT’ lacks both conceptual clarity and empirical evidence of its practical applications. This paper examines the ‘theory’ and practice of ‘JT’ by first considering the competing interpretations and conceptual understandings of ‘JT’ and second, the challenges of realizing a ‘JT’ in an Australian coal region where transition is occurring. The paper argues that achieving ‘JT’ requires more than government provisions and interventions and that unions must perform an active part in the ‘JT’ process through their relations with employers, workers, government, and community. It suggests the lack of clarity within the ‘JT’ literature may be the concept’s lasting strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The model developed in this paper incorporates several features which reflect, more accurately, characteristics of labour markets. First, labour is assumed to be heterogenous. The realism of this assumption hardly needs to be defended. Second, unions do not mechanically fix the wage rate of their members but rather they maximise an objective function. This approach reflects current developments in the theory of labour economics. Third, the economy has a dual character; some markets are unionised while some remain competitive. It can be argued that the phenomenon of a dual economy consisting of flex-wage and rigid-wage sectors is becoming increasingly important in developed and developing countries. Previous literature has tended to concentrate on the extreme case of either complete wage flexibility or complete wage rigidity. By rejecting these extreme assumptions, one hopes to build a more realistic model. The paper is divided into six parts. The basic model is presented in section II. The production side of the economy consists of five equations determining relative factor prices, outputs of two goods and employment of factors of production. We then show how a trade union chooses an optimal combination of wage rate and employment and how the union's choice affects the rest of the economy. Comparative static properties of the model are studied in section III. Particular attention is paid to changes in wage relativities and unemployment in response to variations in factor endowment, commodity prices and technological progress. Section IV takes up some issues concerning long-run changes in relative supplies of different types of labour. It is shown in section V that the model can be readily applied to analysis of minimum wage legislation. The paper ends with a reflection on the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policy in coping with unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — Union-community collaboration is an increasingly common practice in industrialised nations where union power and density have declined. This paper proposes a framework for defining and evaluating community unionism, through a definition of the term "community." Design/methodology/approach — The author explores this framework drawing on campaigns in Sydney and Chicago. Findings — It defines the term community in three discrete but mutually reinforcing ways, as (community) organisation; common interest identity, and local neighbourhood or place. The term is used to then define community unionism as three discrete union strategies, and finally to examine one type of community unionism — coalition unionism. Successful coalition practice is defined by partner organisational relationships (coalition structure, bridge brokers, and coalition offices); common concern (common interest operates as mutual direct interest of organisation and members), and the element of scale (where success increases as coalitions operate at multiple scales such as the local, as well as the scale of government and/or business decision makers). Originality/value — The paper identifies three elements of coalition unionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the parallels and disconnections between leftist thought in Australia and India at a key moment in the interwar era, as the Comintern transitioned from its Second to its Third Period, eschewing the united front with nationalist and parliamentary parties. It does this by tracing the movements of the Australian communist Jack Ryan, who visited India in 1928 representing the Pan-Pacific Trade Union (PPTU), a Comintern organisation that sought to build solidarities between workers in the Asia Pacific region. Arriving in Bombay at a critical time when leftist organisation in India was on the rise, Ryan was trailed by government intelligence organisations that monitored his activities, letters and speeches. Although the formal purpose of his visit – to affiliate Indian Trade Unions with the PPTU – failed, Ryan's journey to India had a substantial political impact. Coinciding with the interventions of a number of other foreign communists in India, it escalated attempts to legislate against the movement of political dissidents in the empire, by launching the Meerut Conspiracy Case. Back in Sydney, Ryan's transnational movement gave him an international prominence that fired domestic communist jealousies, contributing to his expulsion from the Communist Party of Australia, in 1930. Finally, by highlighting the inability of Australian Trade Unions to form lasting solidarities across boundaries of race, Ryan's politics revealed a substantial faultline in Australian leftist thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) statement of union values as its point of departure to explore the purpose and role of trade union values. Specifically, the paper questions whether the role of values is purely symbolic, serving as a guide to unions, or whether values have a broader role. Furthermore, the paper questions the scope of the ACTU statement, which is currently based on the public work of unions. In conducting this analysis, union values are compared to the broader human values; moreover, the scope of the document is assessed against the historic activity and behaviour of unions as represented in extant union theory. Subsequently, the paper uses the emerging role of union values to critique the ACTU statement, concluding that while this statement makes a valuable contribution to union practice and debate, it can be extended to encompass other, more private areas of union activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous scholars have identified the 'neoliberal thought collective' as the key driver of the neoliberal transformation. These accounts emphasize the building of neoliberal hegemony through the mobilization of this collective, and the New Right parties who aligned to these ideas. We argue that Australia's corporatist road to neoliberalism pushes against this thesis, as the movement found little sympathy among policy makers. Rather, the thought collective acted more like a 'ginger group', attempting to radicalize public debate and create space for new neoliberal arrangements. In Australia, successive centre-left Labor governments rolled out neoliberalism in a series of formal corporatist arrangements with the trade union movement. This paper sets out a reconsideration of the role of the thought collective, on the basis of the Australian experience, and argues this can move us beyond the ideational determinism that has come to characterize key accounts of how neoliberalism developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Traditional militant displays of proud working-class masculinity are no longer an advantage in union (or Labor Party) campaigns to win public support. This paper examines the contested masculinities within the construction industry, and specifically those deployed within the campaign by construction unions to achieve workers' rights on site, together with the strategic limitations for their campaigning options. The question of how unions in this sector can effectively campaign to protect their rights is considered, as is the dilemma for union leaders in managing members' legitimate outrage when its usual expression will replicate behaviour demonised by the unions' opponents. In the era of mediated political campaigning, and third-wave labour politics, unions are having to reinvent their public image and campaigning tactics. As the example of the construction unions shows, gender roles and performances of particular masculinities and femininities are highly significant in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from interviews with representatives of national and state organisations that have a policy interest in student-working in Australia. The interviewees included representatives from employer bodies and trade unions as well as government organisations. The data are used to discuss these stakeholders’ perceptions of the main advantages and disadvantages of working by young full-time students and the ways in which organisations in the business and educational sectors have adapted their policies and practices for student-working. The analysis is then used to inform a discussion about whether this is a legitimate area for public policy formulation and if so, what principles might underpin such policy and what some policies might look like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers in this volume seek to broaden the concept of ‘varieties of unionism’ by comparing the labour movements of six countries in the Asia-Pacific region: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Australia. While there is a great diversity of economic, socio-cultural and ethnic factors which have influenced the nature of industrial relations and unionism in each country, all have experienced the impact of globalisation on their labour markets to varying degrees. The repertoire of revitalisation strategies used by unions in Asia are similar, in many ways, to those adopted in western market economies, but their specific forms differ. The authors of the studies in this volume examine the factors which have helped and/or hindered union revitalisation in each of the countries studied. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine the capacity for trade unions to mobilise internationally by considering how stevedores in Australia successfully internationalised a major dispute. Design/methodology/approach -- The paper reports the findings of a single case study of the "waterfront dispute" of 1998, an industrial dispute in the Australian stevedoring industry which included the mobilisation of unions internationally. This case study is one of the four cases in a PhD research project, which examined international trade union activity in the mining, manufacturing, banking and stevedoring industries. The methodology included semi-structured interviews with trade union leaders and activists, as well as document analysis, and involved comparative analysis across the four case studies. Findings -- Australian stevedores or "wharfies" were well placed to mobilise internationally due to a combination of internal and external factors. In particular, the Maritime Union of Australia's long-standing support for international causes, largely due to its left-wing, internationalist politics, resulted in the union gaining significant support from unions internationally. Important external factors included the nature of the stevedoring industry, with its organic link to other industry sectors, combined with the neo-liberal approach adopted in Australia which also influenced the internationalisation of the union campaign. Research limitations/implications -- The study provides the opportunity to consider capacity for international mobilisation in the stevedoring industry and the contingent nature of international campaigns, with wider implications for union strategies in other industry sectors. Originality/value -- The paper contains an in-depth analysis of a major dispute in the Australian stevedoring industry and makes a significant contribution to the expanding literature on the internationalisation of union campaigns and union strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — Despite being increasingly touted as the kind of fundamental transformation needed for union survival, "community unionism" is typically ill-defined and poorly explained. This paper seeks to provide greater precision of terminology and context through a series of geographically-informed historical studies. Design/methodology/approach — Through explaining and synthesising the work of a number of scholars from different disciplines, the paper develops a framework for a "geo-historical" analysis. It begins not with community unionism as such but with a more open exploration of the relationship between unions and social formations at, for the most part, the local scale. Empirical material, based on original qualitative studies, is presented for one industry, Australian mining, across different places and time periods but concentrating most upon the iron ore regions in Western Australia where recent struggles over union renewal and form have been particularly intense. Findings — This paper argues two things about community unionism: that this union form is not without historical antecedents and, more importantly, that its structure, nature and prospects can be better understood if analysed through a number of concepts which geographers have recently developed to explore the intersections between work, community and employment relations. More needs to be done to explain not only the nature and emergence of community unionism but also the very real problems it faces in sustaining itself, let alone transforming union movements overall. The findings point to the varied forms which so-called community unionism may take as well as to the challenges to its current forms, including from within the labour movement itself. Originality/value — The value of the paper lies in its theoretical innovation, drawing on a range of disciplines, and its attempt to situate community unionism precisely — conceptually, historically and geographically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of the paper is to compare employment relations in the hotel industry in Australia and the UK. Australian industry employment is regulated by the state and union recognition is enshrined. A substantial proportion of Australian hotel employers engage directly in firm-level bargaining with trade unions, with unionisation rates across the industry far higher than in the UK. The analysis focuses on employment strategies emphasising numerical/temporal and functional flexibility since efforts to enhance workplace flexibility underpin employment regulation in Australia. Design/methodology/approach -- The paper draws on interviews conducted in 13 exclusive, luxury hotels in Australia. Interviewees consisted of HR and departmental managers, employees across all hotel departments and relevant union officials. Findings -- Labour utilisation practices in Australian luxury hotels reflect relatively sophisticated and systematic endeavours on the part of employers. The specific content and effect of these strategies varies in accordance with hotels' bargaining arrangements. Whilst employee relations outcomes were not entirely without problems in Australian luxury hotels, they do signify that regulation and trade union recognition can produce substantial benefits for employers and employees. Research limitations/implications -- Recognition of potentially positive employment relations outcomes in Australia points to the need for further research in the UK to reassess employers' attitudes to trade unions in a changing employment relations landscape. Originality/value -- The paper offers a comparison between Australia and the UK in an area that is still relatively under-researched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of declining prominence and influence under industrial relations laws regulating Australian workplaces, Australian trade unions appear increasingly to be directing their attention to Corporations Law as a mechanism for pursuing union and employee “voice” within corporate business organisation. This paper undertakes an examination of four recent “union shareholder” campaigns, the circumstances in which they were undertaken, the objectives of the “union shareholder” strategies and the outcomes of the campaigns. The paper also opens up for consideration whether union shareholder activism is merely a new strategy for pursuing conventional industrial aims, or whether it potentially represents a move by unions to identify themselves as “insiders” with a dual interest in the profitability and governance of the corporation as both shareholders and stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian unions have adopted new organizing methods to rebuild and develop their organizations. This represents a change in direction from the commitment to partnership and tripartite planning that characterized the Accord period under the Labor governments of the 1980s and 1990s to a new focus on capacity building. A serious decline in union density along with shifts in the labour process has led unions to focus on recruiting and organizing new members. The vitality involved is tempered by a hostile legal climate that supports workplace flexibility, casualization, fragmentation and low-wage work, while curtailing the rights of unions to recruit and organize. This paper explores the common heritage between the new organizing and theories of popular education, radical history and social movement experience. The paper suggests that contemporary efforts to regenerate unions as assertive organizations that rely on developing and educating new activists and leaders can benefit from drawing on emancipatory traditions of popular education, radical history and community organizing, and in so doing avoid an uncritical adoption of what might become simply a new set of organizing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fall in unionism and the rise in the non-union workplace over the past two decades raises the question as to whether workers now have a reduced capacity to initiate issues and articulate grievances. For some commentators independent unions are the only source of genuine voice. Others have argued that the adoption of the HRM paradigm within an enterprise will provide workers with adequate voice mechanisms. This paper addresses the issue by comparing employee voice in non-union and unionized Australian workplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises findings from a study of the relationship between union membership and workplace climate. A survey of 1380 workers in three different Australian manufacturing firms found union membership to be negatively associated with workplace climate in one company, positively associated with workplace climate in another and to have no significant relationship to workplace climate in the third. These results, when linked to the findings from observational research and focus group discussions, indicated that when a business was only partially unionised, internal harmony and good workplace conditions were reasons for the existence of a positive relationship between workplace climate and union membership. However, when union-management relationships were fractious, the workplace climate was driven by that relationship with deleterious results for workplace harmony. The findings highlight the pivotal requirement for management to provide positive work environments and, when unions are involved, to work with them to achieve this outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to familiarize labor educators with the recent developments in union training in Australia. Specifically, the paper outlines the background to the establishment of TUTA, details the authority's funding, administrative structure, and training program, and comments on the current state of union education in the wake of the: recent legislative change. A brief account of trade unionism in Australia is provided as a prelude to the major subject matter for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the industrial relations setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's automotive industry has throughout the 1990s embarked on a sustained programme to improve product quality, productivity and quality of work life through the development of a more flexible and team-based work-force. This paper examines the results of these efforts through a study of Australia's four car makers and their largest component suppliers. The paper examines the role of union-management cooperation in implementing work teams, identifies the forms of work teams that have been developed as well as evidence for the alignment of organization capabilities to support team-based work. The effects of work teams on organizational performance and quality of work life are also examined. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For low‐income or precariously employed households in Australia, the re‐allocation of risk over the past forty years has four crucial economic dimensions: the fraying of the social security net; changes in labour market dynamics; heightened uncertainty arising from income volatilities; and new hazards generated by the financialisation of daily life. Household financial capabilities are negatively influenced by the compounding impacts of each of these risks. Case examples from a BSL study illustrate each impact and their interactions. The dominant idea that individual capabilities are malleable (and thus can be optimised) whilst circumstances and norms are fixed is countered by an expanded view of Sen's/Nussbaum's capability approach (CA) that includes collective capabilities. Collective capabilities can change norms, and so, the concept provides a needed link between the political and macroeconomic movement of risk re‐allocation and individual or household financial capabilities. The Australian Unemployed Workers' Union is used as an example to show how collective action can challenge structural conditions, and expand or protect the capabilities of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on a potential mechanism for revitalizing unions' influence as broader political actors: their use of familiar and appealing discourses to frame political campaigns. Through a discursive analysis of campaign texts, we show how the Australian Council of Trade Unions successfully promoted a counter-discourse, which operated as a collective action frame to mobilize alternative meanings, identities and possibilities for agency that preceded the eventual repeal of radical employment relations legislation. In doing so, we demonstrate the role and potential of discourse in revitalization strategies available to the union movement. We conclude by arguing that the ability of unions to challenge and shape discourses to their advantage can be a powerful force in the regulation of labour markets and in the shaping of employment relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a consequence of the global economic crises of the 1970s, in Australia, micro-economic reform of the economy, and in particular the labour market, was seen as a key catalyst in providing a more competitive industrial base for the country. Underpinning this was a fundamental change in the conflictual industrial relations structure that had framed work patterns and practices since Federation. The Williamstown Naval Dockyard in Melbourne was the Australian Federal Government's premier dockyard. It had a long-standing reputation for poor productivity, inefficient work practices and industrial unrest and had been described as Australia's worst worksite. After several failed attempts to reform the dockyard, the Federal Government privatised this utility as a catalyst to reform the work culture. On 1 January 1988, the dockyard was transferred to the highly competitive private shipbuilding sector. As the first public utility sold by an Australian Federal Government and the first workplace to adopt micro-economic labour reforms, including enterprise bargaining, the dockyard provides an opportunity to examine the nature of workplace restructuring in the most radical time of change for labour and trade unions in Australia's history. The dockyard was seen at the time as at the vanguard of this change. This paper explores the reforms undertaken in the dockyard. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Much has been written about varieties of collaboration and the interplay between conflict and collaboration in industrial relations. This paper explores the preconditions, processes and outcomes associated with the collaborative strategies of an Australian retail trade union: the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association. The data were collected from an extensive series of interviews with officials and organisers within the union across all Australian states. We find that despite taking a servicing approach, and indeed never aggressively organising members, the union has managed to achieve a range of outcomes that exceed retail employment conditions in other countries. We argue that this is partly a result of the Australian legislative framework, which is inherently pluralist and supportive of collective bargaining. This environment, whereby unions are not forced to fight to represent members, can be conducive to collaborative employment relations, particularly in industries where the parties do not adopt an adversarialist stance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Industrial Relations / Relations Industrielles is the property of Universite Laval, Department of Industrial Relations and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Australia, pay awards by government tribunals cover nearly the entire work force, and those awards set equal pay for comparable union and non- union workers. Union members may, however, secure higher compensation through plant-level bargaining. This study uses 1984-88 panel data to estimate the magnitude of union effects on compensation by examining changes in the compensation of employees who enter and leave union jobs, relative to changes in the compensation of workers who remain union or nonunion. The results show that union workers in Australia enjoy 7-18% higher wages than comparable nonunion workers and are also more likely to have access to a pension plan [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last quarter century saw a restructuring of employment, production and trade and a dramatic decline in union membership and density levels. There are many explanations for this, including the hostile industrial relations framework imposed by many governments, but there have been other factors such as the growth of new non-unionised industries that often rely on casualised labour; new attitudes to unions by younger workers; a political/cultural decline in the workers' movement under neo-liberalism; and an inability by many unions to adapt to these changes. Now dramatic economic changes arising from the global financial crisis that will see increased unemployment and further industry restructuring, along with the restructuring and re-skilling implications of climate change, pose new challenges for trade unions. Drawing on research with senior Australian union officials about the movement's education and training activities this paper considers the relevance of the adaptive systems literature for understanding the operational environments facing unions as they become larger more complex organisations. It considers the existing suite of education activities with reference to Illeris' tension field and the literature of union renewal that emphasises the need to develop new solidarities and therefore a broader conception of education, learning and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a neglected and largely invisible actor within the field of industrial relations. Taking the case of industrial chaplains in Australian workplaces, it demonstrates that not only do chaplains play an important and independent role in their own right, but that their ostensible neutrality is also used to help achieve the interests of both management and trade unions. The location of chaplains in industrial relations and their need to develop workplace legitimacy accounts for this finding. This suggests that future studies that seek to explore the purpose and activities of new and non-traditional groups in industrial relations will need to place their analyses within the context of more established actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The diffusion of performance related pay has attracted considerable academic attention over the past decade. While much contemporary debate has focussed on the excesses of executive remuneration at the "big end of town", what is not so prominent are the views of unions representing employees at the other end of the remuneration spectrum: this is the purpose of this paper. Design/methodology/approach - Evidence was gathered at two levels using two sets of research instruments: in-depth interviews with senior union officials, and primary documentation analysis with specific reference to performance appraisal and performance-related pay clauses in union Enterprise Bargaining Agreements. Findings - Document analysis reveals that performance appraisal and performance-related pay clauses range from mere stipulation of existence to detailed processes and principles of design and implementation. Specific clauses in the white-collar unions' agreements suggest that they are not totally opposed. However, the lack of performance appraisal and performance-related pay clauses in the blue-collar unions' agreements illustrate their propensity to restrict pay increases to a job classification structure. Although there were clauses that aimed to ensure a performance-oriented culture, their agreements seem to be mere sentiments. Overall, only one union supports the notion of performance related pay; the others find performance appraisals difficult to embrace. Negative experiences and consequent problems lead them to argue that the process is complicated and usually puts workers at a disadvantage. Originality/value - Strands of different explanations account for union opposition, but the principal issue is that performance appraisal has only an evaluative function, that is to link performance to pay. To minimise problems in shaping PRP schemes, the unions advocated the integration of a social dimension; transparency and equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the introduction of the organising philosophy into the largest branch of a national, blue-collar, manufacturing union. It outlines the initial adoption of this philosophy and examines the reasons for the failure of this innovation. Some five years later, a second, more successful attempt to introduce the organising model was made. The factors determining this success are analysed in the paper presented here and comparisons are made with the earlier failed attempt. The paper argues that the level of commitment and zeal of the unions' leadership was the crucial factor in determining the extent and culture of organising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Australian trade union movement's campaign to convince the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to support the inclusion of core labour standards in international trade agreements. Despite historical affiliations, the Australian union movement has been unsuccessful in its attempts to influence the ALP. In contrast, the US union movement has convinced both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party to accept that core labour standards should be a part of the trade negotiating agenda. The reasons for the US unions' success on this issue are examined within the context of the changing relationship between the respective union movements and their traditional parliamentary allies. The need for Australian unions to examine and reassess their strategies by drawing lessons from the US experience, including the possibility of a changed relationship with the ALP, is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing geographical literature on the significance of organised labour. A key theoretical and political question concerns the extent and nature of the engagement between trade unions and other groups in the broader community. The paper seeks to contribute to this debate by focusing specifically on the ways in which trade unions engage collaboratively with such interest groups over international corporate campaign issues. It draws upon a case study of the encounter between Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and Rio Tinto, one of the largest privately owned mining companies in the world. This was conducted through a loose alliance co-ordinated by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mining and General Workers Unions (ICEM). The campaign included the use of stakeholder reports aimed at influencing corporate shareholders. The main issues concerned the rights of indigenous peoples, environmental consequences of mining operations, and human rights in the workplace. The attempt to change these aspects of corporate culture led to union-inspired resolutions at the firm’s May 2000 Annual General Meeting, the first attempt to challenge a company through international union-led action in this manner. Although defeated, the resolutions were backed by a significant minority of leading institutional shareholders. The paper interprets this campaign in terms of broader debates over the spatiality of organised labour and the role of trade unions, at a time when increased significance has been attached to alternative political movements. It seeks to theorise the specific implications of internationally-grounded interest-based campaigns and take into account the ways in which these are both constrained by, and draw strength from, their constitution at this spatial scale. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper uses research from the field of international business to investigate when a multinational corporation's threat to leave a country is likely to have substance. Some multinationals have broad flexibility to relocate. Others do not. Customer expectations, transportation costs and organisational factors may limit their flexibility. The challenge for trade unions in high wage countries like Australia is to be able to assess these factors and judge whether threats to ‘move to Asia’ are viable. Often they are not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What factors explain the Australian trade union merger wave between 1991 and 1994? Existing explanations largely attribute it to the pro –amalgamation policy of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)and other union leaders,and to declining union membership and decentralised bargaining. This paper reviews discussion of the causes of mergers and publicly available evidence upon them. It concludes that current explanations of the merger wave are an over–simplification. The effects of ACTU leadership, official union policy,and members’ views are complex and not uniform and require more disaggregated analysis. Also,there has been a tendency to overstate the importance of membership decline and decentralised bargaining and to over – look other environmental factors such as changing occupational structure. The paper cautions against the assumption that variables influencing ACTU policy also shape affiate actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the employee relations practices and outcomes of non-union and unionized workplaces in Australia. It also examines the nature of those practices to ascertain whether non-union workplaces can best be characterized as human resource innovators or 'bleak houses'. The data for the study are drawn from the 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. The findings suggest that non-union workplaces are distinctly less innovative in a number of their employee relations practices and in general have less favourable employee relations outcomes than unionized workplaces in terms of dismissal and turnover rates. The non-union workplace is also distinguished by the individualistic nature of its contractual, remunerative and bargaining arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The positive effect of membership fees on trade unions' cohesion and commitment and the adverse effect of these fees on trade unions' density imply that the effects of membership fees on trade unions' bargaining power, wage rate and unemployment can be depicted by inverted U-shaped curves whose upper bounds are reached when membership fees are set at half the ratio of the upper-bound on members' level of satisfaction from the trade union services to their disposable income rate. The implications of these effects for membership fees are analysed for a trade union that sets its membership fee so as to minimise the loss stemming from missing wage rate and unemployment targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a method of measuring trade union power and of investigating its determinants. It provides the definition of trade union power implied by the asymmetric Nash solution to the trade union/firm bargaining power. The article uses two alternative models of a trade union, an insider-dominated model and an open union model. The measure of union power was calculated, using Australian data for the period 1966 to 1989. The study used regression analysis to show that union power is inversely related to the aggregate level of unemployment.

The article discusses the economics of the living wage. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has made an application for the new "Living Wage" which is being heard by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC). This paper discusses the key issues focusing on the economic case for fair and equitable wages including the employment, productivity, and equity arguments. The paper is based on the economic submissions made by the ACTU in December 1996. The Living Wage claim reflects the view that the fixing of fair and reasonable award rates of pay should be based on a standard which is sufficient for a worker to belong to and participate in the Australian community. The Living Wage claim sets a minimum award rate based on established AIRC Award skill relativities, which meet the "needs" basis of workers and is set on fair 'market" rates. The objective of the Living Wage claim is to establish a minimum of $12 per hour for work within ordinary hours, and $436 per standard 38-hour week.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hitherto unexplored relationship between wage movements (&Wring;) and trade union militancy (TUM) during the inter-war period. This study is seen as an adjunct to my two post-war studies of wage movements and trade union activity in Australia, see [18] and [19]. Briefly the post-war studies revealed a strong positive relationship between TUM and wage movements in Australia. Further, the level of TUM seems to be systematically related to fluctuations in the level of unemployment and the rate of change in prices. This study reaches similar conclusions for the interwar period. The structure of the paper is as follows: section II presents a model that ties in wage movements with TUM while section III presents some empirical estimates of the model. Conclusions follow in section IV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]