What to do with unions?

Could unions in Australia be a solution to ending poverty?

Ensuring workers get good pay and good conditions. Stopping workplace discrimination and ensuring that companies are doing good in the world.

If unions can do all these, it all sounds good.

Unions globally, however, are not all good, they are associated with thuggish behaviour, criminal activities and even deaths.

An irony is that some union members support the right to strike but not the right to go to work for those who want to. At times physically attacking workers trying to go to work, during a strike.

Yet, unions started for a good reason. Stopping the ill treatment of workers, by employers.

So, could unions be a good solution to ending poverty?

Well if they are, there is an issue. Union membership numbers have significantly declined in Australia.

An Australian Parliament House report noted, "The number of union members in Australia has declined from around 2.5 million in 1976 to 1.5 million in 2016. During the same period the union member share of all employees (or union density) has fallen from 51 per cent to 14 per cent. It also notes that "Industry union density is strongest in Education and training and Public administration and safety."

Why has the numbers in the private sector declined?

In 2018, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry argued that things were good for workers. They did not need a union, so less joined one.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions gave of course, other reasons.

The growth of the part-time and casual workforce, insecure work, all made it tougher for people to join unions.

An article in Quartz noted that in 2018, just 10.5% of American workers were in unions. That is the lowest it has been since the 1980's, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began collecting those numbers.

It may be that union membership was never that popular. The article notes that union rates during the golden age for unions, the 1940's and 1950's, in America, may have only been close to 30% of the workforce.

The public sector, however, like in Australia has higher numbers.

Why the decline in private sector union membership in America? The same reasons given for the decline in Australia.

The article notes it is partly because jobs that tend to have lower union numbers like healthcare and hospitality are growing in numbers. Whereas the manufacturing sector, that tended to have higher union membership numbers has declined.

The Quartz article also notes that the "right-to-work" legislation in America was another reason. Employees cannot be forced to join a union, so many do not.

In Australia, compulsory unionism was made illegal.

The concern is that the reduction in unionism is one of the reasons given for why income inequality in America has increased. The same may hold true for why inequality in Australia exists, partly because of the reduction in unionism.

Unions are not just helping workers in Australia by campaigning for better pay and conditions either. Union Aid Abroad is a charity run by Australian unions, helping to tackle inequality overseas.

Yet, that raises another issue. Are unions a friend of reducing global poverty?

Unions can at times oppose migrant workers coming from poor countries to work here. Demanding jobs for Australians first or only, impacting the ability of migrants to escape poverty.

There is another issue, can the decline in membership even be stopped?

People may just not be that interested in joining a union, when they have the choice people tend to choose, not to join.

If the manufacturing sector needs to come back as it once was, in order to boost union numbers, how do we bring back manufacturing jobs? And even that may not be enough because the manufacturing sector that does exist in Australia, has less people joining the union than before.

By the way, manufacturing jobs were not always good.

There is a lament for the time gone by when there was more manufacturing in this country.

The Jobs, however, could be repetitive, mind-numbing by design and unsafe.

So, should more people consider joining a union, and be actively involved in them?

The unions of course would say yes.

The Together Union for example argues that the union movement has helped "to increase standards of living, uphold the rights of women, build opportunities for Australians to spend time with their families and give everyone the right to a secure retirement with dignity."

There is the question over the effectiveness used by unions to achieve their goals.

If unions are important for tackling poverty though, maybe more of us should consider joining them.

The alternative view could be that many people are just not interested in joining a union.