SOCI2050 11th September

2020
Week 7: Unions and Work

Trade unions
An organisation sets up by employees to assist them in the workplace through
collective organisation.

Why do we need trade unions?

 Conflicting interests between employers and employees (e.g. employers

want to make profits and employees want a wage increase).
 Power imbalance between employees and employers, so employees need to
take collective action to protect their rights (main but not exclusive
appeals: negotiating the rates of pay and conditions of employment).

What do trade unions do?

 Representing workers’ interests.

 Unions operate at the workplace and as a lobby group to the wider
community.
 Away from the workplace, unions attempt to influence political decisions,
often through the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions).

History of trade unions

 Union style reformed in the 19 th century (At that time workers who worked
together in cities were exploited and had work health and safety issues, so
workers needed to work out a way of resisting those conditions).
 Unions in the 19th century became effective and strengthen since it
exploited or took advantage of the vulnerabilities in the capitalist system of
work (e.g. size of the firm and the dependency on work) in factories and big
workplaces and developed new forms of collective action (strikes) to increase
their voice.
 From 19th century to 20th century: era of strike. Workers struck for living
wages, opportunities for advancement, job protections, etc.
 Strikes now have declined in many countries in 21 st century. Trade unions
and employer associations or the company prefer to sit down and bargain
 SOCI2050 11th September
2020
through the peak representatives under legal conditions which called collective
bargaining.

Strikes in several countries

 Denmark: Strikes rarely happen in Denmark. Instead, trade unions and the
company sit down and bargain. This is a good way to give workers rights and
voice.
 France: French do not like giving things up to powerful elites, so the French
still regularly use strike actions and big strikes. Even before COVID-19, they
were striking over pension reforms in France.
 Greece: Compared with French strike for bad industrial issues, it is common
for Greek to use the strike as the way of expressing political frustration which
is called political strike.
 India: The biggest strike in the world happened in India where public strikes
can involve ten millions people.

Unions at the workplace

 Economic benefits (wage gain, improvement of working conditions, etc.).

 Increase efficiency (productivity of workers increased).
 Protection (curtail managerial prerogative, increase employee control and
decision-making ability, etc.).
 Collective voice (unions balance the employment relationship).

Unions beyond the workplace

 Unions are involved in tribunal appearances in the state and federal

systems.
 Union aim to influence government decisions on employment and non-
employment matters.
 Unions help workers to increase social wages and welfares (e.g. Medicare,
taxation reform, superannuation).
 Unions nowadays tend to use formal actions under legal conditions rather
than risky social protest.
 SOCI2050 11th September
2020
Changes in union density and why the decline?

Union density = the proportion of employees who are union members.

Peak membership of 61% was in 1962; current membership remain stable at

15%.

 Fall in full-time employment and rise in casual and part-time employment

who do not have tight association with the workplace.
 Loss of jobs in public sector (The public sector is more unionised than the
private sector).
 Generational change (A new generation exists with limited knowledge of
unions).
 Unions have themselves to blame. Unions were slow to react member
losses and dedicated little resources to organise.
 “Free-riding”: Workers reap the benefits of union campaigns without
ever contributing to the union cause.
 Employer sometimes discourage union membership.

How can unions influence the future of work?

Four threats and opportunities:

 Automation and AI – socio-technical system (employers tend to save the

cost by improving technology and employees will lose their jobs. However,
employees will also get other jobs since technology improvement create new
jobs. Union will try to shape and manager it rather than stop the technological
changes.)
 Authoritarian workplace – socio-hierarchical system (Managers are getting
tougher and tougher with employees and demanding more and more from
them by using managerial prerogative. It will create stress and inequality of
work and unions must play a role in protecting workers).
 Unequal pay and bargaining conditions
 Government position, a politics is becoming more authoritarian
(Government should respect workers by creating good working conditions and
a welfare state).
 SOCI2050 11th September
2020
If trade unions disappear, all things are going to become worse!