Three strategies unions are considering for their survival

When more than 1,000 unionists gather in Sydney at a conference organised by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), they will be trying to work out a way forward for a movement that’s in danger of losing its relevance.

The meeting was initiated by the previous ACTU Secretary, Dave Oliver, in response to 2015 union membership figures that showed participation at an historic low. Membership has fallen further since then.

For union leaders, doing their job with dedication and passion isn’t enough. Economic shifts have hit industries with high numbers of union members. Overwhelmingly, new jobs are either not in unionised industries or not in permanent employment – or not in either – and unions aren’t adapting fast enough to this new reality.

The proposals on where to go from here mostly fall within three strands of unionism: community, professional identity and digital. These strands are not mutually exclusive. As Richard Wagstaff, head of New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, put it to a meeting of ACTU taskforces last July, “We need to move from a contest of ideas to a reservoir of ideas”. Read more

Michael Walker - The Conversation - 14 June 2017