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Book Review
| Michael Crosby, Power at Work: Rebuilding the Australian Union Movement, Federation Press, Sydney, 2005. pp. xiv + 306. $39.95 paper.
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| In August 1999, some three years after the beginning of the Howard years, Greg Combet, Secretary of the ACTU took a senior delegation of union leaders to talk with colleagues in Great Britain, Belgium, Canada, Ireland and the United States about how to stem the tide of falling union membership in Australia. Crosby's book gives us a rare glimpse into some of the reforming debates that followed the adoption of new organising agendas across the Australian labour movement. While Crosby is a committed unionist, his book is highly critical of many practices once held dear by many unions, practices that hardly fit the world that modern unions inhabit. For many years, the ACTU Executive inevitably produced some arcane debates about structures, union elections, payments, coverage rules and other competitive pressures. These are all issues that divide unionists and hardly paint a flattering picture to the community at large. |
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It was from the nadir of the mid-1990s and the attack on unions by the new Howard Government that woke the trade union movement up from its slumbering in the victories of the past. History does matter, and the trade union movement can be proud of its heritage but Crosby reminds us that the union movement must reinvent and reform in order to rebuild some sense of the collectivity of the past, thus ensuring that unions not only survive the constant attacks from the Howard Government but that they rebuild their once strong relationships with workers and the communities in which they live and work. Crosby has spent much time with the unions in the United States, and many of his suggestions, examples and strategies come directly from the 'organising' agenda of those unions. Embedded in his approach is a passion for unions and an almost religious zeal for the reinvigoration of trade unions in a modern guise. |
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Crosby paints a depressing picture of union density, and uses this concept as a central focus for all his arguments, and rightly so. Understandably his focus is on the more traditional unions, and generally speaking more on what is known as 'blue collar unions' than on the 'white collar' or service sector unions. He argues that all unions are overly focused on internal issues, rather than reaching out to those workers who are not in a trade union. His answer to these issues is the 'organising model'. What he says about the need for unions to free up both human and financial resources to focus on attracting new members is important, and there are many commonalities across all the unions. And it is true that unions did begin to change, employing young and enthusiastic new organisers, many of whom were women. As the organising model took hold in unions, union membership started to increase for the first time in over a century and 'union bosses' began to become more directly involved in organising work. |
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The real turnaround came with the Your Rights At Work campaign – a campaign that captured the attention of workers, communities and ultimately political parties. It was sophisticated and for the first time had a highly structured and politically savvy media strategy. Crosby does not touch on these issues in his book, but he does argue strongly for greater dependence on union members, supported by the union, to take the debates about workplace legislation not just to their family and friends but beyond. Similarly he argues that it is critical that unions also act in more professional ways in negotiations, in strategy development and in the management of union finances. He demands high standards of accountability and transparency from unions and union leaders, and he places the 'organiser' as the central figure in the rebirth of Australian unions. |
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