Decline in Trade Union Membership in Australia

Decline in Trade Union Membership in Australia
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Decline in Trade Union Membership in Australia
A Trade Union refers to an organization of workers or employees working together to improve their employment conditions. In other words, Trade Unions are membership-based organizations whose principal aim is to advance and protect the interests or needs of their different members in their workplaces (Moet-lysson, 2011). In Australia, trade unions play a significantly contribute towards the employment law and allow employees and employers to bargain and agree on the working conditions. Additionally, employees and employers in Australia can choose a trade union and work with it and negotiate or decide on the employment conditions specific to their company (L&E global knowledge center, 2020). The first trade unions in Australia were formed around 1820 by the non-convict workers in Hobart and Sydney, and they were formed to help its members during illness, death and unemployment. Several early unions were short-lived due to unionism in the 1850s but recovered during World War II. After World War II, Trade Unions reached many achievements; however, from 1980, trade unions in Australia faced several challenges that led to the decline of trade union memberships (Cosic, 2014). Several important reasons have played a pivotal role in declining the trade union membership in Australia over the past 35 years.
The dramatic change in the structure of the Australian industry is one of the reasons why union membership is declining in Australia. Over the past decades, Australia has undergone tremendous structural reforms to transform its economic performance and growth (Banks, n.d). Structural changes involve the dramatic transformation caused by the significant economic developments that change the country, market or industry. The industrial structure of Australia has shifted towards services from manufacturing and agriculture. Long before the change, the Australian economy only directed the industrial structure towards small manufacturing industries with primary productions. However, different factors dragged and shifted the Australian industry to the business service settings, including technological changes, increased demand for services, industrialization of East Asia and different economic reforms (Conolly and Lewis, 2010). The Structural changes have led to different structural factors that affected employment in industries over the past decades, thus leading to the decline in union membership. The structural factors have also facilitated the adoption and increased flexible forms of employment in various industries or businesses. Flexible employment allows workers and employers to formulate the working conditions that suit them without the assistance of the trade union, hence the decline in the membership in the different trade unions (Conolly and Lewis, 2010).
The growth of part-time and casual employment is another reason why union membership has declined over the past decades. The Australian labor market has drastically shifted with a unique development in labor demand and supply. Some of the Australian labor market changes are the ...