Topic: Employee Relations
Written Essay (2000)
1. Introduction (200 words)
2. Body (1100 words for 2.1 & 2.2)
2.1 Identify a vulnerable group of workers (I have selected Young People) and discuss ways in which unions might assist them with issues like;
2.1.1 More secure work (Job security)
2.1.2 Better pay and conditions
2.1.3 Assist with negotiations
2.1.4 You may find other issues when you are researching the topic and it is fine to include them.
2.2 Explain the reasons why individuals in vulnerable groups might join unions?
2.2.1 Support if I have a problem at work
2.2.2 Improve pay and conditions
2.2.3 Free illegal advise
2.2.4 Most people at work are members
2.3 Research some of the creative ways unions have changed to meet the needs of works. Choose one of this and summarise how it works and possible outcomes (eg. Dr Amanda Tattersal) (500-600 words)
3. Conclusion (200 words)
4. References (at least 6 references) (please use this two References plus others)
4.1 Tattersall, A 2010, Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change, Allen & Unwin, Sydney
4.2 Peetz, D, Bailey, J 2012, Dancing alone: The Australian union movement over three decades, pp.535-536
4.3 Others
Assignment question
Using essay format, identify a vulnerable group of workers and discuss:
a. Ways in which unions might assist them with issues like more secure work, better pay and conditions, and help with negotiations at work (these are examples, others may also be discussed).
b. Explain the reasons why individuals in vulnerable groups might join unions?
c. Research some of the creative ways unions have changed to continue to meet the needs of workers. Choose one of these and summarise, how it works and possible outcomes (for example: Community Unionism, Dr Amanda Tattersall has written substantially in this area). This section should only take about 500-600 words of your essay.
A vulnerable group of workers could be: young people, people from backgrounds different to the culture in which they live ie Non-English speaking people, or people in casualised work, ie waitstaff or cleaners.
Something to start you thinking:
You may think that the reasons that unions seek to assist workers, will be the same as the reasons workers seek to join unions. However, this is not always the case. Many unions today have a social agenda and they seek to assist workers in many different ways. You may find that workers tend to join unions for a variety of reasons. They might join for personal reasons, such as for assistance with negotiations, or for industry specific reasons, ie teachers and nurses have strong industry specific unions.
Relevant course material
You can expect to find relevant content in the text and the study book from module 6 relating to this topic. However, you need to consider issues in addition to those presented in your textbook.
Important note
You need to include references for at least six (6) other scholarly and credible authorities to support your discussions on factors discussed outside the course material.
What counts as one of the 6 references:
• union or employer association information from their websites, press releases or policy
• any of the relevant selected readings
This assignment will be assessed using the criteria appearing on the following marking criteria sheet. Make sure you familiarise yourself with the requirements of this sheet as part of preparing your essay.
______________________________________________
Module 6 – Learning Objectives 3 & 5
Introduction
The level of trade union membership and power in Australia and some other industrialised countries have declined significantly over the past two decades or so. Nevertheless, just fewer than two million Australian workers still remain union members and unions remain a significant player in most countries’ employment relations systems, including Australia.
Learning Objectives 3 – Describe the structure of Trade Unions
3.1Structure of unions
Read Loudoun, McPhail & Wilkinson, pp. 50–1. Learning objective 3 is addressed in this reading.
Deery and Plowman (1993, pp. 76, 78) note the four-fold categorisation of the objectives of unions:
1. providing direct services to members such as insurance and legal aid
2. improving conditions of employment
3. ensuring the union’s own organisational security
4. political objectives.
Byrt’s (1985) categorises union goals and activities in this way:
1. The economic role, which is mainly to obtain higher wages through arbitration and
collective bargaining
2. Political goals, which in Australia is largely pursued through their affiliations to the
Labor Party
3. Job control and protection mainly through restricting or controlling the supply or
and price of labour and the way that work is carried out.
3.2The debate over union structure
For most of the twentieth century Australian union movement was characterised by a number of peculiar structural features. There were a large number of unions – around 300 in 1990, of all types – craft, general, industry, occupational and enterprise, with haphazard, crisscrossing membership bases. The vast majority of union members (80%) were concentrated in a small number of large unions. There were many small unions, around half of all unions had less than a thousand members each which altogether had less than two percent of all members. During the 1990s a debate emerged about the desirable reforms to the structure of Australian unions. The business community argued that the existing union structure was detrimental to economic progress, by causing demarcation disputes between unions, pattern bargaining, and adversarial industrial relations. The Business Council of Australia argued that what was required was either an enterprise- or company-based unionism, more competitive unionism, or less unionism altogether. At the same time, the ACTU and several large unions, inspired by the industry structure and notions of ‘strategic unionism’ common in Western Europe, embarked on a program of union amalgamations aimed at achieving fewer, bigger and more efficient union organised on industry lines. During the 1990s, as a result of this plan, numerous union amalgamations occurred and many smaller unions were merged into larger union partners.
Learning Objectives 5 – Analyse the trade Union movement’s response to the decline in unionism
5.1 Union membership
Read Loudoun, McPhail & Wilkinson pp. 51–4. Learning objective 4 is addressed in these readings. The reasons why workers join unions are complex and have been subject to detailed academic analysis. They can be stripped down to three main motivations: instrumental or utilitarian reasons; ideological reasons and compulsion.
5.1.1 The statistics on the structure of Australian trade unionism – continuity and change
The data on changing union membership in the decade from 1993 to 2003 and presents a negative picture for Australian unions. In 2003, there were 1.86 million trade union members and this represented a decline in 26% decline in numbers over the fifteen years since 1988. Over the same period, the union density rate (union members as a percentage of the workforce) declined from 42% in 1988 to 23% in 2003. The problem for unions is that employment has tended to decline in traditional union strongholds such as the public sector and manufacturing and increase in those areas of low density, such as retail trade and property and business services and casual and part-time employment. At the same time, even the traditional areas have experienced significant declines in density. The gender gap in union membership has declined over the years, and now stands at just 2%, with a membership rate of 24% and females 22%. There is also an age factor, with older workers more likely to be union members than young workers.
5.1.2 Union response to declining membership
Read Loudoun, McPhail & Wilkinson, pp. 54–6. Learning objective 5 is addressed in this reading.
This quote from Bramble regarding the revival of unions highlights both the possibilities and pitfalls for the future of unions.
Prospects for revival
There are two contradictory dimensions to working-class consciousness in the early 21st century. The first is a widespread sense of fatalism – a lack of faith that action by ordinary people can stop the juggernaut of economic reform and work intensification. Workers are unhappy with their economic and working circumstances, but years of work intensification without any significant resistance by unions has created a weary resignation. In focus groups organised by Unions NSW in summer 2005, many workers reported working unpaid overtime, longer and less regular hours, and increasing work intensity.
Working-class acceptance of what appears to be an unstoppable process also affects many union militants who, after years of retreats and defeats and half-fought battles, have grown cynical about reviving unions and pessimistic about the preparedness of their fellow workers to fight.
The other dimension of working-class consciousness is a willingness to resist when a lead is given by their traditional leaders. Employer and government offensives have fuelled discontent and this has been evident on repeated occasions since the early 1990s, from the 150 000 who marched against the Kennett Government in 1992 to the tens of thousands of workers who took action in support of the MUA in 1998 and the hundreds of thousands who rallied against WorkChoices.
If there is a will to resist, why are unionisation rates at a historic low? The most common response, heard from both conservatives and frustrated union militants, is that Australian workers have become complacent and have been ‘bought off’, more interested in their plasma TVs and overseas holidays than in joining a union. This argument has no basis in fact, as David Peetz has pointed out. Successive Unions NSW surveys demonstrate untapped potential membership among non-unionists; the 2005 survey confirmed that one half of all workers ‘would rather be in a union’. A 2007 survey by Brigid van Wanrooy and her Sydney University colleagues found a lower, but still substantial, figure: over 800 000 non-members were interested in joining unions. Had they joined, overall coverage would have climbed to 30 per cent. Forty-one per cent of non-members report to Unions NSW that they would like to be in a union but had never been asked. Many of these non-members hold strongly pro-union attitudes – they are as likely as union members to regard trade unions as ‘very important for workers’ job security’ and as essential to prevent a worsening of working conditions for employees. They are actually more likely than union members to agree that ‘employees will never protect their working conditions and wages without strong unions. And they are disproportionately young, indicating that sympathy for trade unionism is not restricted to older generations (Bramble 2008, pp. 246–7).
Written Essay (2000)
1.    Introduction (200 words)
2.    Body (1100 words for 2.1 & 2.2)
2.1    Identify a vulnerable group of workers (I have selected Young People) and discuss ways in which unions might assist them with issues like;
2.1.1    More secure work (Job security)
2.1.2    Better pay and conditions
2.1.3    Assist with negotiations
2.1.4    You may find other issues when you are researching the topic and it is fine to include them.
2.2    Explain the reasons why individuals in vulnerable groups might join unions?
2.2.1    Support if I have a problem at work
2.2.2    Improve pay and conditions
2.2.3    Free illegal advise
2.2.4    Most people at work are members
2.3    Researchsome of the creative ways unions have changed to meet the needs of works. Choose one of this and summarise how it works and possible outcomes (eg. Dr Amanda Tattersal)(500-600 words)
3.    Conclusion (200 words)
4.    References (at least 6 references) (please use this two References plus others)
4.1    Tattersall, A 2010, Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change, Allen &Unwin, Sydney
4.2    Peetz, D, Bailey, J 2012, Dancing alone: The Australian union movement over three decades, pp.535-536
4.3    Others
Assignment question
Using essay format, identify a vulnerable group of workers and discuss:
a.    Ways in which unions might assist them with issues like more secure work, better payand conditions, and help with negotiations at work (these are examples, others may alsobe discussed).
b.    Explain the reasons why individuals in vulnerable groups might join unions?
c.    Research some of the creative ways unions have changed to continue to meet the needsof workers. Choose one of these and summarise, how it works and possible outcomes(for example: Community Unionism, Dr Amanda Tattersall has written substantially inthis area). This section should only take about 500-600 words of your essay.
A vulnerable group of workers could be: young people, people from backgrounds different to the culture in which they live ie Non-English speaking people, or people in casualised work, iewaitstaff or cleaners.
Something to start you thinking:
You may think that the reasons that unions seek to assist workers, will be the same as the reasons workers seek to join unions. However, this is not always the case. Many unions today have a social agenda and they seek to assist workers in many different ways. You mayfind that workers tend to join unions for a variety of reasons. They might join for personalreasons, such as for assistance with negotiations, or for industry specific reasons, ie teachers and nurses have strong industry specific unions.
Relevant course material
You can expect to find relevant content in the text and the study book from module 6 relating to this topic. However, you need to consider issues in addition to those presented in your textbook.
Important note
You need to include references for at least six (6) other scholarly and credible authorities to support your discussions on factors discussed outside the course material.
What counts as one of the 6 references:
•    union or employer association information from their websites, press releases or policy
•    any of the relevant selected readings
This assignment will be assessed using the criteria appearing on the following marking criteria sheet. Make sure you familiarise yourself with the requirements of this sheet as part of preparing your essay.
______________________________________________
Module 6 – Learning Objectives 3 & 5
Introduction
The level of trade union membership and power in Australia and some other industrialisedcountries have declined significantly over the past two decades or so. Nevertheless, justfewer than two million Australian workers still remain union members and unions remain asignificant player in most countries’ employment relations systems, including Australia.
Learning Objectives 3 – Describe the structure of Trade Unions
3.1Structure of unions
Read Loudoun, McPhail& Wilkinson, pp. 50–1. Learning objective 3 isaddressed in this reading.
Deery and Plowman (1993, pp. 76, 78) note the four-fold categorisation of the objectives ofunions:
1. providing direct services to members such as insurance and legal aid
2. improving conditions of employment
3. ensuring the union’s own organisational security
4. political objectives.
Byrt’s (1985) categorises union goals and activities in this way:
1. The economic role, which is mainly to obtain higher wages through arbitration and
collective bargaining
2. Political goals, which in Australia is largely pursued through their affiliations to the
Labor Party
3. Job control and protection mainly through restricting or controlling the supply or
andprice of labour and the way that work is carried out.
3.2The debate over union structure
For most of the twentieth century Australian union movement was characterised by a numberof peculiar structural features. There were a large number of unions –around 300 in 1990, ofall types – craft, general, industry, occupational and enterprise, with haphazard, crisscrossing membership bases. The vast majority of union members (80%) were concentrated ina small number of large unions. There were many small unions, around half of all unions hadless than a thousand members each which altogether had less than two percent of allmembers. During the 1990s a debate emerged about the desirable reforms to the structure ofAustralian unions. The business community argued that the existing union structure wasdetrimental to economic progress, by causing demarcation disputes between unions, patternbargaining, and adversarial industrial relations. The Business Council of Australia arguedthat what was required was either an enterprise- or company-based unionism, morecompetitive unionism, or less unionism altogether. At the same time, the ACTU and severallarge unions, inspired by the industry structure and notions of ‘strategic unionism’ commonin Western Europe, embarked on a program of union amalgamations aimed at achievingfewer, bigger and more efficient union organised on industry lines. During the 1990s, as aresult of this plan, numerous union amalgamations occurred and many smaller unions weremerged into larger union partners.
Learning Objectives 5 – Analyse the trade Union movement’s response to the decline in unionism
5.1 Union membership
Read Loudoun, McPhail& Wilkinson pp. 51–4. Learning objective 4 isaddressed in these readings.The reasons why workers join unions are complex and have been subject to detailedacademic analysis. They can be stripped down to three main motivations: instrumental orutilitarian reasons; ideological reasons and compulsion.
5.1.1The statistics on the structure of Australian trade unionism –continuity and change
The data on changing union membership in the decade from 1993 to 2003 and presents anegative picture for Australian unions. In 2003, there were 1.86 million trade union membersand this represented a decline in 26% decline in numbers over the fifteen years since 1988.Over the same period, the union density rate (union members as a percentage of theworkforce) declined from 42% in 1988 to 23% in 2003.The problem for unions is that employment has tended to decline in traditional unionstrongholds such as the public sector and manufacturing and increase in those areas of lowdensity, such as retail trade and property and business services and casual and part-timeemployment. At the same time, even the traditional areas have experienced significantdeclines in density. The gender gap in union membership has declined over the years, andnow stands at just 2%, with a membership rate of 24% and females 22%. There is also an agefactor, with older workers more likely to be union members than young workers.
5.1.2 Union response to declining membership
Read Loudoun, McPhail& Wilkinson, pp. 54–6. Learning objective 5 isaddressed in this reading.
This quote from Bramble regarding the revival of unions highlights both the possibilities andpitfalls for the future of unions.
Prospects for revival
There are two contradictory dimensions to working-class consciousness in the early 21stcentury. The first is a widespread sense of fatalism – a lack of faith that action byordinary people can stop the juggernaut of economic reform and work intensification.Workers are unhappy with their economic and working circumstances, but years of workintensification without any significant resistance by unions has created a wearyresignation. In focus groups organised by Unions NSW in summer 2005, many workersreported working unpaid overtime, longer and less regular hours, and increasing workintensity.
Working-class acceptance of what appears to be an unstoppable process also affectsmany union militants who, after years of retreats and defeats and half-fought battles,have grown cynical about reviving unions and pessimistic about the preparedness oftheir fellow workers to fight.
The other dimension of working-class consciousness is a willingness to resist when alead is given by their traditional leaders. Employer and government offensives havefuelled discontent and this has been evident on repeated occasions since the early 1990s,from the 150 000 who marched against the Kennett Government in 1992 to the tens ofthousands of workers who took action in support of the MUA in 1998 and the hundredsof thousands who rallied against WorkChoices.
If there is a will to resist, why are unionisation rates at a historic low? The mostcommon response, heard from both conservatives and frustrated union militants, is thatAustralian workers have become complacent and have been ‘bought off’, more interestedin their plasma TVs and overseas holidays than in joining a union. This argument has nobasis in fact, as David Peetz has pointed out. Successive Unions NSW surveysdemonstrate untapped potential membership among non-unionists; the 2005 surveyconfirmed that one half of all workers ‘would rather be in a union’. A 2007 survey byBrigid van Wanrooy and her Sydney University colleagues found a lower, but stillsubstantial, figure: over 800 000 non-members were interested in joining unions. Hadthey joined, overall coverage would have climbed to 30 per cent.Forty-one per cent of non-members report to Unions NSW that they would like to be in aunion but had never been asked. Many of these non-members hold strongly pro-unionattitudes – they are as likely as union members to regard trade unions as ‘very importantfor workers’ job security’ and as essential to prevent a worsening of working conditionsfor employees. They are actually more likely than union members to agree that’employees will never protect their working conditions and wages without strong unions.And they are disproportionately young, indicating that sympathy for trade unionism isnot restricted to older generations (Bramble 2008, pp. 246–7).