Trade Unionism in Australia: A History from Flood to Ebb Tide

by Tom Bramble

• ISBN13: 9780521716123
• ISBN10: 0521716128
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In the late 1960s Australian unionism was on the flood tide: growing in strength, industrially confident and capable of shaping the overall political climate of the nation. Forty years on, union membership and power is ebbing away despite community support for trade unionism and the continuing need for strong unions. Even the unprecedented mobilisation against WorkChoices, which defeated a government and lost the prime minister his own seat, has done little to turn the tide. With compelling rigour, Tom Bramble explores the changing fortunes of what was once an entrenched institution. Trade Unionism in Australia charts the impact on unions of waves of economic restructuring, a succession of hostile governments and a wholesale shift in employer attitudes, as well as the failure of the unions' own efforts to boost membership and consolidate power. Indeed, Bramble demonstrates how the tactics employed by unions since the early 1980s may have paradoxically contributed to their decline. Ultimately this timely book traces union-led action from the workplace to the political sphere over a period of significant change, and concludes by pointing to strategies for a renewal and revival of Australian unions.

Author Biography

Tom Bramble is Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations, School of Business, University of Queensland and has been a union activist

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables	p. ix
List of acronyms	p. xi
Preface	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Two vignettes	p. 1
Outline of this book	p. 3
Trade unionism in the postwar boom, 1945-67	p. 6
The postwar upsurge	p. 6
The 1950s retreat	p. 12
The working-class revival of the 1960s	p. 22
On the verge of a breakthrough	p. 38
The flood tide, 1968-74	p. 39
The union upsurge, 1968-74	p. 41
The breakthrough, 1968-69	p. 41
The flood tide gathers force, 1969-74	p. 45
Gains from the flood tide	p. 62
The Labor ascendancy, 1972-74	p. 67
Conclusion	p. 70
The stand-off, 1974-83	p. 73
Economic crisis and the halting of the flood tide, 1974-75	p. 75
The onset of economic crisis	p. 75
Business goes on the attack	p. 76
Union responses to the crisis	p. 81
Unions and the Kerr Coup	p. 88
Unionism in the Fraser years	p. 95
A period of retreat, 1976-78	p. 96
Union recovery, 1978-81	p. 109
The end of the Fraser Government and the emergence of the Accord	p. 114
The ebb tide, 1983-2007	p. 123
The ALP-ACTU Accord, 1983-90	p. 125
The early years of the Accord, 1983-86	p. 126
The rise of productivity trade-offs, 1987-90	p. 145
The position of trade unions by 1990	p. 154
The 1990 federal election	p. 157
Enterprise bargaining and a revived employer offensive, 1990-96	p. 159
A new phase in the productivity revolution	p. 160
Working-class resistance	p. 170
The two faces of unionism	p. 174
The 1996 election and the end of the Accord	p. 178
Unionism in a cold climate, 1996-2004	p. 181
Workers and their unions in 1996	p. 181
Two early clashes	p. 184
The anti-union offensive continues	p. 198
Union efforts to reverse decline	p. 201
WorkChoices and the defeat of the Howard Government	p. 210
WorkChoices	p. 210
The 'Your Rights at Work' campaign	p. 218
The 2007 federal election	p. 233
Results and prospects	p. 239
Australian unionism from flood to ebb tide: a summary of the argument	p. 239
The challenge facing the unions	p. 244
Prospects for revival	p. 246
Notes	p. 253
Index	p. 275
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