A-Infos (en) anarkismo.net: Australia: State of the union movement by MACG (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The union movement must be rebuilt and as soon as possible. It will only be 
harder the more the movement declines. Rebuilding can only be done through a rank 
and file insurgency. There may be times and places where it is appropriate to 
organise new unions (for example in entirely unorganised parts of the workforce, 
or where the existing union is wholly on the side of the bosses and cannot be 
recaptured by its members). Most workers, though, will not break with the 
officials until they are already mobilised and a practical decision is in front 
of them, so the insurgency must operate largely within existing unions. - 
Australia: State of the union movement - We are witnessing the slow extinction of 
Australia's trade union movement. In 1976, 2.5 million Australian workers (some 
51.6% of the workforce) were members of a trade union. As of August this year, 
trade union density in Australia has fallen to 12.5% (1.4 million people). The 
Australian trade union movement is older than ever before, only 2% of employed 
15-19 year olds and 5% of 20-24 year olds are members of a union (ABS 2022).

The decline in union membership is mirrored by a decline in industrial action. In 
the December quarter of 1991, 589,000 Australian workers spent at least a day on 
strike. The latest quarterly figures for this year record 28,000 workers involved 
in industrial action. As bad as this seems, it still represents a relative uptick 
since the COVID lockdowns.

Trade unions are built in struggle. Unions are built and grow when workers strike 
and win. In Australia, successive Labor and Liberal governments have built one of 
the most restrictive legal frameworks for industrial action in the developed 
world. It is exceptionally difficult to go on strike in Australia, and without 
the support of the union bureaucracy, almost impossible.

The union bureaucracy has strong incentives to avoid strikes, and especially to 
avoid the kinds that would be necessary to break out of the legal straightjacket 
of the Fair Work Act. Australia's legal framework, and the loyalty of the union 
officials to the ALP, create a relatively privileged position for the formal 
union leadership. For unions that step out of line, there are substantial fines, 
and the threat of deregistration. The threat of deregistration is significant, 
since unions depend on the few legal privileges that registration brings in order 
to maintain what membership they have.

The trade union bureaucracy has shown that it cannot break from its legal and 
political straight jacket (one partly of its own making). There are relative 
strongholds in education and healthcare (where the fear of legal liability 
compels workers to join their union) but the unions, as currently organised, are 
doomed. The officials cannot defend the institution over which they preside.

However, the death of the union movement would not be a good thing. Despite the 
inadequacies of formal Australian trade unions, the 1.5 million members of 
Australian unions are still the most organised segment of the Australian working 
class. The loss of union organisation will only lead to further losses in wages, 
conditions, and the relative strength of the class.

The union movement must be rebuilt and as soon as possible. It will only be 
harder the more the movement declines. Rebuilding can only be done through a rank 
and file insurgency. There may be times and places where it is appropriate to 
organise new unions (for example in entirely unorganised parts of the workforce, 
or where the existing union is wholly on the side of the bosses and cannot be 
recaptured by its members). Most workers, though, will not break with the 
officials until they are already mobilised and a practical decision is in front 
of them, so the insurgency must operate largely within existing unions.

Though the Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group advocates a rank and file movement 
within the existing unions, it mustn't be bound to the current legal structures. 
It needs to operate independently of the union bureaucracy in order to build the 
strength that is needed to break with the legal and political limits of 
Australia's industrial relations system. And it is only by breaching those limits 
that the union movement can survive.

IF YOU DON'T FIGHT, YOU LOSE

*This article is from "The Anvil", newsletter of the Melbourne Anarchist 
Communist Group (MACG), Vol. 11/ No 6, November-December 2020.

https://melbacg.wordpress.com/

https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32719
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