Answer questions 500WORDS (IN 15 HOURS)

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Week6-EmployeeRepresentation.pptx

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Week 6 – Employee representation (union & non-union)

21702 – Industrial Relations

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Today’s Lecture

What are unions? What do they do?

Union type and structure

Unionism in Australia

The union ‘heartland’

The changing profile of unionism

Reasons for decline

Unionism and the ‘voice gap’

Non-union employee voice

State-sanctioned non-union representation

Current union issues

The future of unionism in Australia

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This week in the media

SMH

1 September 2020

SMH

1 September 2020

The Conversation (USA)

3 September 2020

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What are unions? What do they do?

‘A Trade Union…is a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their working lives’ (Sidney and Beatrice Webb 1919, p. 1)

The Webb’s described this regulatory role as the setting of rules and the enforcement of them by methods of ‘mutual insurance, collecting bargaining and legal enactment’

Freeman and Medoff (1984, p. 8) describe ‘voice’ as ‘discussing with an employer conditions that ought to be changed, rather than quitting the job’ and that ‘a trade union is the vehicle for collective voice – that is, for providing workers as a group with a means of communicating with management.’

The monopoly face of unions: The role of unions in uniting individuals into groups that seek to raise wages above determined purely by market forces (Freeman and Medoff 1984)

The collective voice / institutional response face: draws on exit vs voice argument – ‘voice’ provides an alternative to exiting the relationship (Freeman and Medoff 1984)

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What are unions? What do they do?

Unions enable employees to:

Contribute to the authorship and enforcement of rules

Influence terms and conditions of work

Influence processes and practices employed in their workplace

Critics: unionism creates unfair monopolies, prevent the operation of the labour market

Supporters: unions can correct the power relationship between employees and employers

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What are unions? What do they do?

Union strategies

Servicing

Organising

Community unionism

Flanders (1970) explains the complexity of trade union purpose by using the metaphor of a ‘double-edged sword’ – one edge represents the pursuit of a ‘vested interest’ e.g. recruiting new members and improving the pay and conditions of workers. The other edge of the sword concerns the ‘sword of justice’ – this is the social purpose of unions e.g. campaigning for the rights and protections of those more vulnerable in society (such as migrant workers), irrespective of whether they are union members or not

See the reading by Kaine (2014) in your reading list for more about the role of trade unions and voice channels

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Union Type and Structure

Union Types:

Craft union

Single-industry union

Occupational union

General union

Unions can affiliate with larger bodies:

State level e.g. Unions NSW

National level e.g. ACTU

International level e.g. International Trade Union Confederation

International Labour Organisation (ILO)

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Unionism in Australia

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Unionism in Australia – today’s profile

Ged Kearney – ACTU

Sally McManus – ACTU

Jo Schofield – United Workers Union

Sharan Burrow – International Trade Union Confederation

The ‘gender profile’ of Australian unionism is changing

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Unionism in Australia – reasons for decline

See Kaine’s (2016) article for more insight on declining unionism

Conciliation and arbitration

Public perception

Regulation & anti-union legislation

Generational change

Structure of employment

Decreased size of public sector

Management practice

Weakening political affiliation

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MIT Worker Voice Project 2017

https://gcgj.mit.edu/new-paper-worker-voice-appear-ilr-review

https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/building-the-institutions-needed-to-strengthen-worker-voice/

Do workers still want to join unions?

Research from MIT (Kochan et al. 2019) indicates a growing ‘voice gap’ between the level of voice workers have at work and the level of voice they want at work

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Employee Voice (Non-Union)

For the majority of the 20th century, Australian workers were represented by unions under a centralised IR system focused on compulsory arbitration and industrial awards. As a result, employee voice was largely indirect through trade unions and joint consultative committees.

Declining unionism and a move to enterprise level bargaining has resulted in a ‘representation gap’

Human resource management (HRM) employee representation (‘direct employee voice’) linked to high performance, organisational commitment and skills development

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Employee Voice (Non-Union)

Consultative

Direct

Internal memos

Bulletin boards

Suggestion schemes

Indirect

Joint consultative committees

Decision-making

Direct

Quality circles

Teamwork

Indirect

Works councils

Employee representation on company boards

Critics suggest that management is only motivated to secure compliance of employees – Ramsay (1986) argues that management strengthens its prerogatives through showing shared decision-making and re-asserting its own views

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State-sanctioned non-union representation

Three types of non-union representation

Occupational Health and Safety Committees

Established under (state) OHS legislation

By 1990, 41% of workplaces with more than 20 employees had a formal OHS committee

2. Non-union collective agreement making

Non-union bargaining commenced with the Industrial Relations Act 1991 in NSW

Permitted collective enterprise agreements without a union representation

Followed by similar legislation in other states and at the Federal level

3. Individual agreements

E.g. Australian Workplace Agreements (AWA’s)

Evidence suggests these instruments were used to remove union presence, drive down conditions and wages, increase managerial prerogative

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(Some) current union issues

27 March 2020, The Australian

‘Change the Rules’ campaign

Campaign arose in response to dissatisfaction with pervasive job and income insecurity, stagnant wages

Sought legislative change to strengthen union power

Enforcing labour standards in the gig economy

Case of (successful) negotiations between Unions NSW and Airtasker to established agreed minimum standards for engagements negotiated through this platform

See your reading from Minter (2017) for more on this case

Union response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Union campaign for paid pandemic leave for every worker

The crisis has rapidly transformed relations between the union movement and the Federal government – will we see more cooperation on this issue?

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The Future of Unionism in Australia?

Union renewal

Cooperation with employers

Connecting with the community

Addressing diversity of member concerns

Rebuilding sense of collectivism

Amalgamation

Social media

Alt-unionism

See Gavin (2019) for more on union renewal strategies

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Summary

Unions have had a very important institutional and regulatory role in the history of Australia’s industrial relations system

Unions were key agents for improving wages and conditions during the 19th century and had strength at this time to demand improvements

A range of factors, since the mid-20th century, have caused the decline of unionism and decline in the importance of unions in the rulemaking process, with some (limited) success in revitalising unions

The most heavily unionised sector are now in female-dominated, public service sectors

The decline in union has produced a ‘voice gap’ which has tried to be filled by human resource management practices that drive ‘non-union’ employee voice at the workplace level

The Covid-19 pandemic may prove to be a turning point in relations between the major actors

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Reference List

Minter, K (2017) ‘Negotiating labour standards in the gig economy: Airtasker and Unions New South Wales’, The Economic and Labour Relations Review 28(3), 438-454.

Gavin (2019) ‘Militant unionists are striking out: here are 4 things unions can do to stay relevant’, The Conversation, 28 August.

Kaine (2014) ‘Union Voice’ in Wilkinson, A., Donaghey, J., Dundon, T. and Freeman, R.B. (eds) Handbook of Research on Employee Voice, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheshire, pp. 170-188.

Kaine, (2016) ‘The state of the union(s): how a perfect storm weakened the workers’ voice’, The Conversation, 21 April.

Webb, S. and Webb, B. History of Trade Unionism 1660-1920,

Kochan, T.A., Yang, D., Kimball, W.T. and Kelly, E.L. (2019). ‘Worker Voice in America: Is There a Gap Between What Workers Expect and What They Experience?’. ILR Review, 72 (1): 3–38.

Cooper (2016) ‘Why wooing women is the way forward for trade unions’ https://theconversation.com/why-wooing-women-is-the-way-forward-for-trade-unions-57208

Freeman and Medoff (1984) What Do Unions Do? New York: Basic Books

Flanders (1970) Management and unions: the theory and reform of industrial relations

Uni Global Union (2020) Swedish union gains 5,000 new members during COVID-19 crisis https://www.uniglobalunion.org/news/swedish-union-gains-5000-new-members-during-covid-19-crisis

MIT Worker Voice Project 2017 - https://gcgj.mit.edu/new-paper-worker-voice-appear-ilr-review / https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/building-the-institutions-needed-to-strengthen-worker-voice/

Trends in union membership in Australia (2018), Parliament of Australia, https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1819/UnionMembership

Coronavirus: the odd couple truce working to save jobs, 27 March 2020, The Australian

http://www.smh.com.au/national/female-workers-now-more-unionised-than-men-20140317-34y62.html

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