Union Aims and Methods

Abstract

Generalisations about the behaviour and activities of Australian unions can be a somewhat difficult and hazardous exercise in a country which boasts over 300 organisations representing more than 3 million members. Australian unions have a variety of objectives, interests and activities. They differ in size, structure, organisational strength and nature and coverage of membership. They often hold conflicting political ideologies, pursue varying industrial tactics and serve different interests and roles. To attribute a single set of goals and objectives to them is to assume a unity of purpose which is simply not present. This disparateness is to be expected. Not all employees occupy the same market position, nor do they encounter the same problems in their work places. There are wide differences between them in terms of income, job security and working conditions. It is difficult for example to compare the industrial milieu of textile workers and motor vehicle assemblers with that of airline pilots and engineers. A complexity of unions have been formed to service the particular needs of employees. They exist to promote the sectional interests of that part of the workforce they happen to organise and represent. This feature is not peculiar only to Australian unions. Robert Hoxie, an American, (see Taft 1974, pp. 264–5) described union programmes elsewhere as containing:

… nothing less than all the various economic, political, ethical and social viewpoints and modes of action of a vast and heterogeneous complex of working class groups, moulded by diverse environments and actuated by diverse motives.