6 - Within the Workplace

Summary

While previous chapters have looked at various types of data concerning individual employees, much of the change in union membership is change that takes place in the workplace. It is the workplace, then, that is the focus of this chapter. What are the characteristics of workplaces that influence union decline and growth? What do they tell us about the influence of union and managerial behaviour and strategy on union membership? What do they tell us about the efficacy of the Australian union movement's amalgamationist strategy?

This chapter examines the issue of within-workplace change from four angles: first, changes in union density within workplaces; second, the extreme situations of deunionisation or union collapse; third, the recruitment of new union members and establishment of unions; and fourth, the effect of union amalgamations on union membership. The Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys are the main sources of information, including the AWIRS95 ‘main survey’ of 2000 workplaces and the separate ‘panel survey’ of 700 workplaces that were surveyed in 1989–90 and reinterviewed in 1995–96, enabling comparisons over a period of almost six years to be made.

All ‘workplace’ data in this chapter refer to those with 20 or more employees. Although not representative of all workplaces, they account for the great majority of employees in unionised workplaces, and enable us to understand the forces for change within the workplace.