Australian labour movement
Encyclopedia
The Australian labour movement has its origins in the early 19th century and includes both trade union
s and political activity
. At its broadest, the movement can be defined as encompassing the industrial wing, the unions in Australia
, and the political wing, the Australian Labor Party
(ALP) and minor parties.
Almost all unions in Australia are affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions
(ACTU). These unions are commonly the product of a significant process of amalgamation undertaken in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Workers to Australia initially came from England under what was called Penal transportation
, as prisoners under the condition of slavery
. Workers were also brought from neighbouring islands and from local areas under similar conditions. The abolition of slavery across the former British Empire
affected Australia too.
Craft unions in Australia began in the early 19th century as craft associations of highly skilled urban workers who sought to combine (form a labour union
), to increase their wages and lower their hours.
Conditions of the time were governed by the Master and Servant Act
. Employees in Australia in 1840 who left their employment without permission were subject to being hunted down under the Bushrangers Act. As little as one hour’s absence by a free servant without permission could precipitate a punishment of prison or the treadmill. In the Melbourne jurisdiction, in the years 1835 to 1845, when labour shortages were acute, over 20% of prison inmates were convicted under the New South Wales Master and Servant Act for offences including leaving place of work without permission and being found in hotels.
On 18 August 1855 the Stonemasons Society in Sydney
issued an ultimatum to employers that in six months time, masons would only work an eight-hour day. However men working on the Holy Trinity Church (Garrison Church) in Argyle Cut, and on the Mariners Church, (an evangelical mission to seafarers, now an art gallery and café) in Lower George Street (98-100 George Street), could not contain their enthusiasm and decided not to wait. They pre-emptively went on strike, won the eight-hour day, and celebrated with a victory dinner on 1 October 1855.
On 21 April 1856 Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne
stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an Eight hour day. Their direct action protest was a success, and they are noted as being among the first organised workers in the world to achieve an 8 hour day, with no loss of pay.
and Labour council
During 1856 Melbourne Trades Hall Committee
was formed and received a grant of land to build the Melbourne Trades Hall, which was completed in 1859. The Trades and Labor Council of Sydney
was formed by eight unions in 1871, and Sydney Trades Hall
was built between 1888 and 1895. The United Trades and Labour Council of South Australia
has a history dating back to 1884.
; the 1891 shearers' strike
; the 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike
; and the 1894 shearers' strike. When a large number of sheep shearer
s in Queensland
struck against poor conditions and wages that were being lowered, the Queensland police responded with violence and broke up the strike. Each of these industrial conflicts was seen as a demoralising blow for the labour movement. William Lane
and many others sought refuge in building a new society called New Australia
in Paraguay. Others in the labour movement, demoralised with direct action, turned to a political solution and sought election to parliament
s using manhood suffrage, thus resulting in the formation of the Australian Labor Party
.
to insure against sickness, accident or unemployment. In fact, Unions had a far smaller membership than did Friendly Societies in Australia, according to Green and Cromwell. They explain that "At the turn of the (twentieth) century, when the friendly societies were serving well over 30 per cent of the population, fewer than one worker in ten (2.5 per cent of the total population) was a trade union member." (Mutual Aid or Welfare State. Australia's Friendly Societies). Reports of community events and labour processions regularly detailed the active participation of trade societies and friendly societies. Friendly societies were an important part of the Labour movement, but their contribution has mostly been ignored by Labour Historians, according to a researcher in this field, Dr Bob James.
The threats of wild cat
industrial action on a national level convinced the Federal Parliament to adopt a system of compulsory registration of unions, and compulsory arbitration in disputes. The Conciliation and Arbitration Act
was assented to in 1904, and dictated the terrain of industrial relations conflicts and unionism until the 1990s.
In part this was caused by two new ideas of unionism: trade unionism and industrial unionism
. Trade unionists sought to organise all people engaged in the same trade on job sites. Rather than simply organising the ditch diggers into one craft union and the dirt movers into another craft union, trade unionists sought to organise all people who moved earth into one union.
Industrial unionism went one step further, claiming that all workers on one worksite, diggers, plasterers, engine drivers, cleaners, caterers, engineers, accountants and clerks should belong to one union, as part of a "construction industry." Industrial unionists sought to organise all workers into One Big Union which could then conduct a strike across the entire society and peacefully usher in socialism. The 1912 Brisbane General Strike
showed the combined power of the labour movement, effectively operating as an alternative social administration for five weeks, undermining the power of the conservative government.
At the time there was no real conflict or division between the trade and industrial union mentality. Many supporters of the ALP in the Trades and Labour Councils
were radical, militant and supported socialism. Both ideas of unionism shared the idea of organising the unskilled to win against the bosses.
, and the first national Labour government in the world in 1904 through Chris Watson
. Then came the first national Labour majority government
in the world, the first national majority government in Australia, and the first Senate
majority in Australia, in 1910 through Andrew Fisher
. The state branches formed their first majority governments in New South Wales
and South Australia
in 1910, in Western Australia
in 1911, and in Queensland
in 1915. Such success eluded equivalent social democratic and labour parties in other countries for many years. The 113 acts passed in the three years of the federal Fisher government was unprecedented, a period of reform unmatched in the Commonwealth up until that point. The government carried out many reforms in defence, constitutional matters, finance, transport and communications, and social security, such as establishing old-age and disability pensions, a maternity
allowance and workers compensation
, issuing Australia's first paper currency, forming the Royal Australian Navy
, the commencement of construction for the Trans-Australian Railway
, expanding the bench of the High Court of Australia
, founding Canberra
and establishing the government-owned Commonwealth Bank.
The chief proponent of industrial unionism in Australia was the Industrial Workers of the World
, which actively sought out conflicts with management. The IWW also acted on a political plane, opposing boyhood conscription, then the first world war
. The Australian labour movement united around opposition to conscription, largely due to vocal opposition by the IWW and Catholic archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix
. Two referendum proposals to introduce conscription by Labor Prime Minister Billy Hughes
were defeated, making Australia the only nation at war during the First World War not to introduce conscription.
The Labor Governments of Hughes in the Federal sphere, and William Holman
in New South Wales, were held in low regard by much of the labour movement due to their policies on military conscription.
On 23 September 1916 twelve members of the IWW (most of them active organisers) were arrested and charged with treason under the Treason Felony Act (1848). As four buildings had been deliberately damaged by fire, the charge of arson was added to the charges. They became known as the Sydney Twelve
with many unions and people in the labour movement actively campaigning for their release for several years.
The Unlawful Associations Act (1916) was rushed through Federal Parliament in late December and the IWW was declared an illegal organisation. The IWW simply changed its name to Workers' Defence and Release Committee, and continued as normal. In late July 1917 the Act was amended resulting in any organisation or individual able to be easily proscribed. In return the IWW ran a 'free speech movement
' campaign in which over 80 members in Sydney were sentenced to 6 months hard labour (the maximum) for simply proclaiming their membership, which was enough to scare many others away from open defiance. Those not born in Australia were subsequently deported at the end of their sentences, mostly to Chile
. A chain of international protests about the Sydney Twelve IWW prisoners followed. (Sydney's Burning (An Australian Political Conspiracy))
At the end of the first world war in Australia there were a number of major industrial and political actions which threatened the stability of society. In Queensland
counter-revolutionary and racist riots broke out in the Red Flag Riots
, when it was made illegal to fly or wear the red flag
, except as a sign of danger. The New South Wales General Strike of 1917
started on 2 August 1917, by railway workers over the introduction of the Taylor system
of determining where work could be speeded-up. It was the most widespread labour upheaval since the 1890s, and ended when mining workers returned to work on 15 October 1917.
was formed in October 1920 by a group of Trades Hall
radicals that included John "Jock" Garden
, the members of the illegal IWW, and members of earlier socialist organisations in Australia.
Strikes in this period were commonplace, and remained threatening to the Commonwealth government until 1928 and the passage of the Dog-collar act against the Waterside Workers Federation
. Of particular note is the 1923 Victorian Police strike
.
Trade union movement membership reached its peak in 1927, according to Green and Cromwell, when trade union membership "comprised less than 15 per cent of the whole population, only 47 per cent of the workforce."
(more widely known as The Dog Collar Act) was passed, the Australian union movement sought to protect itself by forming the Australian Council of Trade Unions
. By this point the idea of trade unionism had won out over industrial unionism. This was in part encouraged by the Industrial courts
who freely gave registration to small, shop and trade specific unions. While the Communist Party of Australia would always argue for industrial unions, the idea of industrial unions mouldered until the 1960s, and only received support from the ACTU and ALP
in the 1980s.
The dog-collar act was used to break up strong unions, in forestry and in dock-working. These unions were perceived to be revolutionary, or at least militant. At the same time the fragmented trade unions sought to maintain member conditions in an environment of massive unemployment. For instance, rates of male unemployment in the industrial city of Newcastle never dropped below 20% throughout the 1920s. When the depression hit, formal unemployment rates rose above 30%.
The 1929 Timber Workers strike
was the first large strike after the onset of the Great Depression when Justice Lukin
handed down a new timber industry award that increased the working week from 44 to 48 hours and reduced wages. During the strike Lukin ordered a secret ballot to be held which was the first attempt to enforce a secret ballot in an industrial dispute.
A fifteen month lockout during 1929–1930 of miners on the Northern New South Wales Coalfields was particularly bitter. The Rothbury Riot
resulted in police shooting at miners, killing Norman Brown and seriously injuring many more.
The trade union response to unemployment was not inspiring. Before the Depression
some strong trade unions would provide welfare for unemployed members, and seek jobs for them. The depression rendered this system useless where it existed at all. (Union welfare primarily existed in seasonal work with militant unions, like dock-working. It was precisely these unions that were attacked by the dog-collar act).
In response to the depression the remains of the IWW set up a union for the unemployed. This idea was quickly taken up by both the CPA
and the ALP who both established associations (not organised as unions of workers) for the unemployed. The militance of unemployed workers who identified with the CPA or ALP, and the spirit of universal unionism which remained from the IWW, changed these movements of the unemployed into effective unions. The unemployed unions attacked local councils, and occasionally landlords, in order to win conditions. Infamously, a series of CPA inspired riots occurred against evictions in Newtown, Bankstown
, Newcastle and Wollongong. The unemployed movements did not win significant employment, payment or condition victories for the unemployed workers. No future union of the unemployed would ever match the achievements of the unemployed unions of the 1930s.
amongst Australian workers, and the CPA attempted to take advantage of this by industrial agitation after the war in the 1948 Queensland Railway strike
and the 1949 Australian coal strike
(the first time the military were used in peacetime to break a strike), and disputes on the waterfront and in the meat industry. This attempt to seize control of the union movement failed and was the start of the decline in communist leadership and influence in the labour movement. At the same time, agitation by Catholic organisations such as the National Civic Council (or Groupers) started setting up of Industrial Groups
within unions to counter the influence of communists.
The 1950s and 1960s period was generally one of industrial peace, dictated by preference agreements and closed shop
s. This period saw union membership keep pace with the growth of the workforce.
The post war years saw the Australian labour movement support Indigenous Australians
in their fight for human rights, cultural rights and native title, through supporting the 1946 Pilbara strike
, The Gurindji Strike
at Wave Hill in the Northern Territory, equal pay for aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, and support for the Noonkanbah people in their land rights dispute with the Western Australian Government over mining companies disturbing sacred sites.
During the 1960s a number of militant unions became locked in contests with governments and employers. Governments relied on penal powers to keep union activists in line. The general strike
over Clarrie O'Shea
's imprisonment broke the government law and ushered in a period of rising union demands. These demands existed in a context of a general social radicalisation under Gough Whitlam
and Malcolm Fraser
.
The militant wave was broken by the Australian Labor Party
's Wages and Prices Accord in 1984 under Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke
. After 1984 industrial militance declined, and a newly amalgamated trade union movement presided over falls in real wages. In the 1985 Mudginberri dispute and the 1986 Dollar Sweets dispute
employer organisations such as the National Farmers Federation successfully backed legal sanctions to defeat union industrial action. The 1989 Australian pilots' strike
saw the Federal Labor Government using RAAF planes and pilots to break industrial action by the Australian Federation of Air Pilots, taken outside the Wages and Prices accord.
In the late 1980s Australia experienced a push for microeconomic reform encompassing deregulation of a number of previously regulated markets, including the labour market. This was first pursued by the Keating
Government in 1991, through the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement
s introduced into Australia under the Prices and Incomes Accord in 1991 (Mark VII). They later became the centrepiece of the Australian industrial relations system when the Accord was next revised in 1993 (Mark VIII). This ended nearly a century of centralised wage-fixing based industrial relations.
With the 1996 election of the Federal Government under Prime Minister John Howard
increasing pressure was brought to bear on industrial relations reforms to reduce the industrial power of Australian trade unions. This has included the introduction of Australian Workplace Agreement
s — individual contractual agreements on pay and conditions between an employee and employer — and the reduction of minimum conditions contained in Industrial awards. One of the first targets of the conservative Government was to undermine the power of the Maritime Union of Australia
, through breaking its closed shop on waterfront labour. The 1998 Australian waterfront dispute
resulted with stevedoring firm, Patrick Corporation
under CEO Chris Corrigan
, attempting to sack its entire waterfront workforce of 1400 people through company restructuring. The Australian Council of Trade Unions
condemned the sacking as a gross act of collusion between Patrick, the Government, and the National Farmers Federation, and with the threat of legal action against the Government and Patrick Corporation, a settlement was negotiated to allow some reform with the MUA retaining its effective closed shop.
The last quarter of the 20th century has seen the proportion of employees in the workforce belonging to a union falling from 51 per cent in 1976 to about 23 per cent in 2005.
After the Howard Liberal Government's 2004 election victory, and with a majority in the Senate since 1 July 2005, changes to industrial laws to further undermine the collective bargaining
power of trade unions look set to continue. In May 2005 the Howard Government announced its Industrial Relations changes known as WorkChoices
. This legislation received widespread criticism from the Australian union movement, many religious and community groups and, significantly (but not widely reported), the International Labour Organization
, of which Australia is a member.
On 30 June 2005 up to 100,000 people marched through Melbourne in opposition to the proposed industrial relations changes, with meetings also held in capital cities and regional towns around Australia.
On 15 November 2005, the ACTU organised a national day of protest
, during which the ACTU estimated 546,000 people took part in marches and protests in Australia's state capitals and other cities.. The rallies were addressed by State premiers and religious leaders. Other notable Australians, including former Prime Minister Bob Hawke
, also spoke in opposition to the industrial relations changes. John Howard said that the protests will not change his policy and employer groups estimated that 95% of the workforce did not attend.
The Bill was passed by the Senate
, with minor amendments, by a vote of 35-33 on 2 December 2005 and received the Royal Assent
on 14 December.
Following the defeat of the Howard Liberal government at the 2007 federal election, the Rudd Labor government moved quickly to outlaw Australian Workplace Agreement
s (AWAs) amongst other changes.
WorkChoices
legislation was superseded by the Fair Work Act 2009 on 1 July 2009 which, whilst seen as an improvement for workers, has attracted criticism from industry experts, the Australian Greens Party and organized labour, especially the Victorian Branch of the Electrical Trades Union
. In May 2009 the findings of a secret report on the new legislation, commissioned by the executive of the Australian Council of Trade Unions
(ACTU), were revealed. The report found that "the act does not bring our laws into compliance with ILO standards". Geoff Borenstein, an in-house solicitor of the ETU stated that the Fair Work legislation breaches ILO conventions regarding the right to strike
, industrial action generally and restrictions on the content of industrial instruments (awards, collective agreements &c). Professor Ron McCallum
of the University of Sydney asserts that the new legislation will "probably" be deemed a breach of international law
by the International Labour Organization
, particularly in regards to ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s and political activity
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
. At its broadest, the movement can be defined as encompassing the industrial wing, the unions in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and the political wing, the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
(ALP) and minor parties.
Almost all unions in Australia are affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions
Australian Council of Trade Unions
The Australian Council of Trade Unions is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions.-History:The ACTU was formed in 1927 as the "Australian Council of Trade Unions"...
(ACTU). These unions are commonly the product of a significant process of amalgamation undertaken in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Early history
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
, as prisoners under the condition of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
. Workers were also brought from neighbouring islands and from local areas under similar conditions. The abolition of slavery across the former British Empire
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
affected Australia too.
Craft unions in Australia began in the early 19th century as craft associations of highly skilled urban workers who sought to combine (form a labour union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
), to increase their wages and lower their hours.
Conditions of the time were governed by the Master and Servant Act
Master and Servant Act
Master and Servant Acts or Masters and Servants Acts were laws designed to regulate relations between employers and employees during the 18th and 19th centuries. An 1823 United Kingdom Act described its purpose as "the better regulations of servants, labourers and work people"...
. Employees in Australia in 1840 who left their employment without permission were subject to being hunted down under the Bushrangers Act. As little as one hour’s absence by a free servant without permission could precipitate a punishment of prison or the treadmill. In the Melbourne jurisdiction, in the years 1835 to 1845, when labour shortages were acute, over 20% of prison inmates were convicted under the New South Wales Master and Servant Act for offences including leaving place of work without permission and being found in hotels.
On 18 August 1855 the Stonemasons Society in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
issued an ultimatum to employers that in six months time, masons would only work an eight-hour day. However men working on the Holy Trinity Church (Garrison Church) in Argyle Cut, and on the Mariners Church, (an evangelical mission to seafarers, now an art gallery and café) in Lower George Street (98-100 George Street), could not contain their enthusiasm and decided not to wait. They pre-emptively went on strike, won the eight-hour day, and celebrated with a victory dinner on 1 October 1855.
On 21 April 1856 Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an Eight hour day. Their direct action protest was a success, and they are noted as being among the first organised workers in the world to achieve an 8 hour day, with no loss of pay.
Trades Halls
See also: Trades HallTrades Hall
A Trades Hall is an English term for a building where trade unions meet together, or work from cooperatively, as a local representative organisation, known as a Labor Council or Trades Hall Council...
and Labour council
Labour council
A labour council, trades council or industrial council is an association of labour unions or union branches in a given area. Most commonly, they represent unions in a given geographical area, whether at the district, city, region, or provincial or state level...
During 1856 Melbourne Trades Hall Committee
Victorian Trades Hall Council
The Victorian Trades Hall Council is a representative body of trade union organisations, known as a Labour council, in the State of Victoria, Australia...
was formed and received a grant of land to build the Melbourne Trades Hall, which was completed in 1859. The Trades and Labor Council of Sydney
Labor Council of New South Wales
The Labor Council of New South Wales is a representative body of Trade union organisations in the State of New South Wales, Australia. As of 2005 there are 67 unions and 8 Rural and Regional Trades & Labor Councils affiliated to the Labor Council, representing 800,000 workers in NSW...
was formed by eight unions in 1871, and Sydney Trades Hall
Sydney Trades Hall
The Sydney Trades Hall is the historic Trades Hall in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The building was built and owned by the Trades Hall Association, the original trade union affiliates who built the hall in 1888....
was built between 1888 and 1895. The United Trades and Labour Council of South Australia
United Trades and Labour Council of South Australia
The United Trades and Labour Council of South Australia, also known as SA Unions, is a representative body of trade union organisations, known as a Labour council, in the State of South Australia...
has a history dating back to 1884.
1890s Great Strikes
As the craft union movement broadened, less skilled and rural workers began to organise. Three great strikes convulsed the continent of Australia in this period: the 1890 maritime strike1890 Australian maritime dispute
The 1890 Australian Maritime Dispute, commonly known as the 1890 Maritime Strike, was on a scale unprecedented in the Australian colonies to that point in time, causing political and social turmoil across all Australian colonies and in New Zealand, including the collapse of colonial governments in...
; the 1891 shearers' strike
1891 Australian shearers' strike
350px|thumb|Shearers' strike camp, Hughenden, central Queensland, 1891.The 1891 shearers' strike is one of Australia's earliest and most important industrial disputes. Working conditions for sheep shearers in 19th century Australia weren't good. In 1891 wool was one of Australia's largest industries...
; the 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike
1892 Broken Hill miners' strike
The 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike was a sixteen week strike which was one of four major strikes that took place between 1889 and 1920 in Broken Hill, NSW, Australia....
; and the 1894 shearers' strike. When a large number of sheep shearer
Sheep shearer
A sheep shearer is a worker who uses -blade or machine shears to remove wool from domestic sheep during crutching or shearing.-History:...
s in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
struck against poor conditions and wages that were being lowered, the Queensland police responded with violence and broke up the strike. Each of these industrial conflicts was seen as a demoralising blow for the labour movement. William Lane
William Lane
William Lane was a journalist, advocate of Australian labour politics and a utopian.-Early life:Lane was born in Bristol, England, eldest son of James Lane,from Ireland a Protestant Master Gardener , and his English wife Caroline, née Hall...
and many others sought refuge in building a new society called New Australia
New Australia
New Australia was a utopian socialist settlement in Paraguay founded by the Australian New Australian Movement. The colony was officially founded on 28 September 1893 as Colonia Nueva Australia and comprised 238 adults and children.-History:...
in Paraguay. Others in the labour movement, demoralised with direct action, turned to a political solution and sought election to parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
s using manhood suffrage, thus resulting in the formation of the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
.
Friendly Societies
The early labour movement was much broader than trade unions. As there was no social welfare, many workers and their families were members of a Friendly societyFriendly society
A friendly society is a mutual association for insurance, pensions or savings and loan-like purposes, or cooperative banking. It is a mutual organization or benefit society composed of a body of people who join together for a common financial or social purpose...
to insure against sickness, accident or unemployment. In fact, Unions had a far smaller membership than did Friendly Societies in Australia, according to Green and Cromwell. They explain that "At the turn of the (twentieth) century, when the friendly societies were serving well over 30 per cent of the population, fewer than one worker in ten (2.5 per cent of the total population) was a trade union member." (Mutual Aid or Welfare State. Australia's Friendly Societies). Reports of community events and labour processions regularly detailed the active participation of trade societies and friendly societies. Friendly societies were an important part of the Labour movement, but their contribution has mostly been ignored by Labour Historians, according to a researcher in this field, Dr Bob James.
Growth of the trade and industrial unions
At the beginning of the 20th century the union movement was in disarray across Australia. Only a few tough craft unions had survived. The majority of workers were un-unionised. A variety of skilled organisers turned this around, and achieved remarkably high union membership density rates by 1914.The threats of wild cat
Wildcat strike action
A wildcat strike action, often referred to as a wildcat strike, is a strike action taken by workers without the authorization of their trade union officials. This is sometimes termed unofficial industrial action...
industrial action on a national level convinced the Federal Parliament to adopt a system of compulsory registration of unions, and compulsory arbitration in disputes. The Conciliation and Arbitration Act
Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904
The Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904 was an Australian Commonwealth Government Act "relating to Conciliation and Arbitration for the Prevention and Settlement of Industrial Disputes extending beyond the Limits of any one State", and was assented to on 15 December 1904, almost four years after...
was assented to in 1904, and dictated the terrain of industrial relations conflicts and unionism until the 1990s.
In part this was caused by two new ideas of unionism: trade unionism and industrial unionism
Industrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...
. Trade unionists sought to organise all people engaged in the same trade on job sites. Rather than simply organising the ditch diggers into one craft union and the dirt movers into another craft union, trade unionists sought to organise all people who moved earth into one union.
Industrial unionism went one step further, claiming that all workers on one worksite, diggers, plasterers, engine drivers, cleaners, caterers, engineers, accountants and clerks should belong to one union, as part of a "construction industry." Industrial unionists sought to organise all workers into One Big Union which could then conduct a strike across the entire society and peacefully usher in socialism. The 1912 Brisbane General Strike
1912 Brisbane General Strike
The 1912 Brisbane General Strike in Queensland, Australia, began when members of the Australian Tramway Employees Association were dismissed when they wore union badges to work on 18 January 1912...
showed the combined power of the labour movement, effectively operating as an alternative social administration for five weeks, undermining the power of the conservative government.
At the time there was no real conflict or division between the trade and industrial union mentality. Many supporters of the ALP in the Trades and Labour Councils
Trades Hall
A Trades Hall is an English term for a building where trade unions meet together, or work from cooperatively, as a local representative organisation, known as a Labor Council or Trades Hall Council...
were radical, militant and supported socialism. Both ideas of unionism shared the idea of organising the unskilled to win against the bosses.
Governments
Labour candidates emerged in the late 19th century with much success, being a part of informal coalition governments from the early 1890s. The first Labour government in the world came in 1899 through Anderson DawsonAnderson Dawson
Andrew Dawson , usually known as Anderson Dawson, was an Australian politician, the Premier of Queensland for one week in 1899...
, and the first national Labour government in the world in 1904 through Chris Watson
Chris Watson
John Christian Watson , commonly known as Chris Watson, Australian politician, was the third Prime Minister of Australia...
. Then came the first national Labour majority government
Majority government
A majority government is when the governing party has an absolute majority of seats in the legislature or parliament in a parliamentary system. This is as opposed to a minority government, where even the largest party wins only a plurality of seats and thus must constantly bargain for support from...
in the world, the first national majority government in Australia, and the first Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
majority in Australia, in 1910 through Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher was an Australian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister on three separate occasions. Fisher's 1910-13 Labor ministry completed a vast legislative programme which made him, along with Protectionist Alfred Deakin, the founder of the statutory structure of the new nation...
. The state branches formed their first majority governments in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
and South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
in 1910, in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
in 1911, and in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
in 1915. Such success eluded equivalent social democratic and labour parties in other countries for many years. The 113 acts passed in the three years of the federal Fisher government was unprecedented, a period of reform unmatched in the Commonwealth up until that point. The government carried out many reforms in defence, constitutional matters, finance, transport and communications, and social security, such as establishing old-age and disability pensions, a maternity
Maternity
Maternity or motherhood is the social and legal acknowledgment of the parental relationship between a mother and her child.It is specially related with the protection of the baby and the mother within and after the childbirth.-See also:...
allowance and workers compensation
Workers' compensation
Workers' compensation is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence...
, issuing Australia's first paper currency, forming the Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...
, the commencement of construction for the Trans-Australian Railway
Trans-Australian Railway
The Trans-Australian Railway crosses the Nullarbor Plain of Australia from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia...
, expanding the bench of the High Court of Australia
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...
, founding Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
and establishing the government-owned Commonwealth Bank.
The Labour Movement and World War I
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
, which actively sought out conflicts with management. The IWW also acted on a political plane, opposing boyhood conscription, then the first world war
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The Australian labour movement united around opposition to conscription, largely due to vocal opposition by the IWW and Catholic archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix
Daniel Mannix
Daniel Mannix was an Irish-born Australian Catholic bishop. Mannix was the Archbishop of Melbourne for 46 years and one of the most influential public figures in 20th century Australia....
. Two referendum proposals to introduce conscription by Labor Prime Minister Billy Hughes
Billy Hughes
William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....
were defeated, making Australia the only nation at war during the First World War not to introduce conscription.
The Labor Governments of Hughes in the Federal sphere, and William Holman
William Holman
William Arthur Holman was an Australian Labor Party Premier of New South Wales, Australia, who split with the party on the conscription issue in 1916 during World War I, and immediately became Premier of a conservative Nationalist Party Government.-Early life:Holman was born in St Pancras, London,...
in New South Wales, were held in low regard by much of the labour movement due to their policies on military conscription.
On 23 September 1916 twelve members of the IWW (most of them active organisers) were arrested and charged with treason under the Treason Felony Act (1848). As four buildings had been deliberately damaged by fire, the charge of arson was added to the charges. They became known as the Sydney Twelve
Sydney Twelve
The Sydney Twelve were members of the Industrial Workers of the World arrested on 23 September 1916 in Sydney, Australia, and charged with treason under the Treason Felony Act , arson, sedition and forgery....
with many unions and people in the labour movement actively campaigning for their release for several years.
The Unlawful Associations Act (1916) was rushed through Federal Parliament in late December and the IWW was declared an illegal organisation. The IWW simply changed its name to Workers' Defence and Release Committee, and continued as normal. In late July 1917 the Act was amended resulting in any organisation or individual able to be easily proscribed. In return the IWW ran a 'free speech movement
Free Speech Movement
The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and...
' campaign in which over 80 members in Sydney were sentenced to 6 months hard labour (the maximum) for simply proclaiming their membership, which was enough to scare many others away from open defiance. Those not born in Australia were subsequently deported at the end of their sentences, mostly to Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. A chain of international protests about the Sydney Twelve IWW prisoners followed. (Sydney's Burning (An Australian Political Conspiracy))
At the end of the first world war in Australia there were a number of major industrial and political actions which threatened the stability of society. In Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
counter-revolutionary and racist riots broke out in the Red Flag Riots
Red Flag Riots
The Red Flag Riots were a series of violent demonstrations and attacks that occurred in Queensland, Australia over the course of 1918–19. The attacks were largely undertaken by returned soldiers from the First Australian Imperial Force and were focused upon socialists and other elements of society...
, when it was made illegal to fly or wear the red flag
Red flag
In politics, a red flag is a symbol of Socialism, or Communism, or sometimes left-wing politics in general. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its...
, except as a sign of danger. The New South Wales General Strike of 1917
Australian General Strike of 1917
The General Strike of 1917 was a general strike which began in the Australian state of New South Wales and spread to other states over six weeks from 2 August to 8 September 1917.-Background:...
started on 2 August 1917, by railway workers over the introduction of the Taylor system
Scientific management
Scientific management, also called Taylorism, was a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. Its main objective was improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes and to management...
of determining where work could be speeded-up. It was the most widespread labour upheaval since the 1890s, and ended when mining workers returned to work on 15 October 1917.
The labour movement in the 1920s
The Communist Party of AustraliaCommunist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
was formed in October 1920 by a group of Trades Hall
Trades Hall
A Trades Hall is an English term for a building where trade unions meet together, or work from cooperatively, as a local representative organisation, known as a Labor Council or Trades Hall Council...
radicals that included John "Jock" Garden
John Garden
John Smith "Jock" Garden , clergyman, Australian trade unionist and politician, was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Australia.-Early life:...
, the members of the illegal IWW, and members of earlier socialist organisations in Australia.
Strikes in this period were commonplace, and remained threatening to the Commonwealth government until 1928 and the passage of the Dog-collar act against the Waterside Workers Federation
Maritime Union of Australia
The Maritime Union of Australia covers waterside workers, seafarers, port workers, professional divers, and office workers associated with Australian ports. As of 2011 the union has about 13,000 members. It is an affiliate of the International Transport Workers' Federation and represents the...
. Of particular note is the 1923 Victorian Police strike
1923 Victorian Police strike
The 1923 Victorian Police strike occurred in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. On the eve of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival in November 1923, half the police force in Melbourne went on strike over the operation of a supervisory system using labour spies...
.
Trade union movement membership reached its peak in 1927, according to Green and Cromwell, when trade union membership "comprised less than 15 per cent of the whole population, only 47 per cent of the workforce."
Depression and attacks on unions
After the Transport Workers Act 1928Transport Workers Act 1928
The Transport Workers Act 1928 was passed by the Nationalist Commonwealth Government of Stanley Bruce. It stipulated that the engagement, service and discharge of stevedores required a licence....
(more widely known as The Dog Collar Act) was passed, the Australian union movement sought to protect itself by forming the Australian Council of Trade Unions
Australian Council of Trade Unions
The Australian Council of Trade Unions is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions.-History:The ACTU was formed in 1927 as the "Australian Council of Trade Unions"...
. By this point the idea of trade unionism had won out over industrial unionism. This was in part encouraged by the Industrial courts
Australian Industrial Relations Commission
The Australian Industrial Relations Commission, or AIRC , was a tribunal with powers under the Workplace Relations Act 1996. It was the central institution of Australian labour law...
who freely gave registration to small, shop and trade specific unions. While the Communist Party of Australia would always argue for industrial unions, the idea of industrial unions mouldered until the 1960s, and only received support from the ACTU and ALP
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
in the 1980s.
The dog-collar act was used to break up strong unions, in forestry and in dock-working. These unions were perceived to be revolutionary, or at least militant. At the same time the fragmented trade unions sought to maintain member conditions in an environment of massive unemployment. For instance, rates of male unemployment in the industrial city of Newcastle never dropped below 20% throughout the 1920s. When the depression hit, formal unemployment rates rose above 30%.
The 1929 Timber Workers strike
1929 Timber Workers strike
The 1929 Timber Workers strike was a labour dispute in Australia caused by Judge Lukin of the Arbitration Court handing down an industrial award decision on 23 December 1928 to reduce the wages and increase the hours for 20,000 timber workers from a 44-hour week to a 48-hour week...
was the first large strike after the onset of the Great Depression when Justice Lukin
Lionel Lukin (judge)
Justice Lionel Oscar Lukin was appointed as the first judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, Australia on 25 January 1934 and remained the sole Judge of the Court until November 1943 when he retired due to ill health....
handed down a new timber industry award that increased the working week from 44 to 48 hours and reduced wages. During the strike Lukin ordered a secret ballot to be held which was the first attempt to enforce a secret ballot in an industrial dispute.
A fifteen month lockout during 1929–1930 of miners on the Northern New South Wales Coalfields was particularly bitter. The Rothbury Riot
Rothbury Riot
On 16 December 1929, New South Wales Police drew their revolvers and shot into a crowd of locked-out miners in the New South Wales town of Rothbury in Australia, killing a 29-year-old miner, Norman Brown, and injuring approximately forty five other miners...
resulted in police shooting at miners, killing Norman Brown and seriously injuring many more.
The trade union response to unemployment was not inspiring. Before the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
some strong trade unions would provide welfare for unemployed members, and seek jobs for them. The depression rendered this system useless where it existed at all. (Union welfare primarily existed in seasonal work with militant unions, like dock-working. It was precisely these unions that were attacked by the dog-collar act).
In response to the depression the remains of the IWW set up a union for the unemployed. This idea was quickly taken up by both the CPA
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
and the ALP who both established associations (not organised as unions of workers) for the unemployed. The militance of unemployed workers who identified with the CPA or ALP, and the spirit of universal unionism which remained from the IWW, changed these movements of the unemployed into effective unions. The unemployed unions attacked local councils, and occasionally landlords, in order to win conditions. Infamously, a series of CPA inspired riots occurred against evictions in Newtown, Bankstown
Bankstown, New South Wales
Bankstown is a suburb of south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bankstown is located 20 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of Bankstown.-History:Prior to European...
, Newcastle and Wollongong. The unemployed movements did not win significant employment, payment or condition victories for the unemployed workers. No future union of the unemployed would ever match the achievements of the unemployed unions of the 1930s.
Second World War and after
The second world war created a significant feeling of sympathy for the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
amongst Australian workers, and the CPA attempted to take advantage of this by industrial agitation after the war in the 1948 Queensland Railway strike
1948 Queensland Railway strike
right|thumb|225px|Confrontation with police during demonstration in support of the strike, Brisbane, 17 March 1948The 1948 Queensland Railway strike was a strike which lasted nine weeks, from February to April, 1948, over issues of the wages of the Railway Workshops and locomotive depots workers in...
and the 1949 Australian coal strike
1949 Australian coal strike
The 1949 Australian coal strike is the first time that Australian military forces were used during peacetime to break a Trade union strike. The strike by 23,000 coal miners lasted for seven weeks, from 27 June 1949 to 15 August 1949, with troops being sent in by the Ben Chifley Federal Labor...
(the first time the military were used in peacetime to break a strike), and disputes on the waterfront and in the meat industry. This attempt to seize control of the union movement failed and was the start of the decline in communist leadership and influence in the labour movement. At the same time, agitation by Catholic organisations such as the National Civic Council (or Groupers) started setting up of Industrial Groups
Industrial Groups
The Industrial Groups were groups formed by the Australian Labor Party in the late 1940s, to combat Communist Party influence in the trade unions....
within unions to counter the influence of communists.
The 1950s and 1960s period was generally one of industrial peace, dictated by preference agreements and closed shop
Closed shop
A closed shop is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times in order to remain employed....
s. This period saw union membership keep pace with the growth of the workforce.
The post war years saw the Australian labour movement support Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
in their fight for human rights, cultural rights and native title, through supporting the 1946 Pilbara strike
1946 Pilbara strike
The 1946 Pilbara strike was a landmark strike by Indigenous Australian pastoral workers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia for human rights recognition and payment of fair wages and working conditions...
, The Gurindji Strike
The Gurindji Strike
The Gurindji Strike refers to the walk-off and strike by 200 Gurindji stockmen, house servants and their families in August 1966 at Wave Hill cattle station in Australia's Northern Territory....
at Wave Hill in the Northern Territory, equal pay for aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, and support for the Noonkanbah people in their land rights dispute with the Western Australian Government over mining companies disturbing sacred sites.
During the 1960s a number of militant unions became locked in contests with governments and employers. Governments relied on penal powers to keep union activists in line. The general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
over Clarrie O'Shea
Clarrie O'Shea
Clarence Lyell O'Shea, more commonly known as Clarrie O'Shea , was the Victorian State Secretary of the Australian Tramway & Motor Omnibus Employees' Association who was jailed in 1969 by Sir John Kerr for contempt of the Industrial Court when he disobeyed a court order that his union pay $8,100 in...
's imprisonment broke the government law and ushered in a period of rising union demands. These demands existed in a context of a general social radicalisation under Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
and Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
.
The militant wave was broken by the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
's Wages and Prices Accord in 1984 under Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
. After 1984 industrial militance declined, and a newly amalgamated trade union movement presided over falls in real wages. In the 1985 Mudginberri dispute and the 1986 Dollar Sweets dispute
Dollar Sweets dispute
The Dollar Sweets dispute in 1985 was a small industrial dispute with major legal ramifications in industrial relations where an employer resorted to a common law verdict and damages in a case in the Supreme Court of Victoria to resolve a dispute after industrial courts proved ineffective...
employer organisations such as the National Farmers Federation successfully backed legal sanctions to defeat union industrial action. The 1989 Australian pilots' strike
1989 Australian pilots' strike
The 1989 Australian pilots' dispute was one of the most expensive and dramatic industrial disputes in Australia's history. It was co-ordinated by the Australian Federation of Air Pilots after a prolonged period of wage suppression, to support its campaign for a large pay increase The 1989...
saw the Federal Labor Government using RAAF planes and pilots to break industrial action by the Australian Federation of Air Pilots, taken outside the Wages and Prices accord.
In the late 1980s Australia experienced a push for microeconomic reform encompassing deregulation of a number of previously regulated markets, including the labour market. This was first pursued by the Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
Government in 1991, through the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement
Enterprise bargaining agreement
Enterprise bargaining is wage and working conditions being negotiated at the level of the individual organisations. Once established, they are legally binding on employers and employees....
s introduced into Australia under the Prices and Incomes Accord in 1991 (Mark VII). They later became the centrepiece of the Australian industrial relations system when the Accord was next revised in 1993 (Mark VIII). This ended nearly a century of centralised wage-fixing based industrial relations.
With the 1996 election of the Federal Government under Prime Minister John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
increasing pressure was brought to bear on industrial relations reforms to reduce the industrial power of Australian trade unions. This has included the introduction of Australian Workplace Agreement
Australian Workplace Agreement
Australian workplace agreements were formalized individual agreements negotiated by the boss and employee. Employers could offer "take it or leave it" AWAs as a condition of employment. They were registered by the employment advocate and did not require a dispute resolution procedure. These...
s — individual contractual agreements on pay and conditions between an employee and employer — and the reduction of minimum conditions contained in Industrial awards. One of the first targets of the conservative Government was to undermine the power of the Maritime Union of Australia
Maritime Union of Australia
The Maritime Union of Australia covers waterside workers, seafarers, port workers, professional divers, and office workers associated with Australian ports. As of 2011 the union has about 13,000 members. It is an affiliate of the International Transport Workers' Federation and represents the...
, through breaking its closed shop on waterfront labour. The 1998 Australian waterfront dispute
1998 Australian waterfront dispute
The Australian waterfront dispute of 1998 was a watershed event in Australian Industrial Relations history, in which the Patrick Corporation undertook a restructuring of their operations for the purpose of increasing the productivity of their workforce...
resulted with stevedoring firm, Patrick Corporation
Patrick Corporation
Patrick Corporation Ltd was an Australian publicly listed logistics conglomerate. Headed by CEO Chris Corrigan before it was absorbed by Toll Holdings in 2006, Patrick had interests in shipping, rail and aviation, including a 62% shareholding in airline Virgin Blue...
under CEO Chris Corrigan
Chris Corrigan
Chris Corrigan is an Australian businessman. He was the Managing Director of the Patrick Corporation until it was taken over in 2006....
, attempting to sack its entire waterfront workforce of 1400 people through company restructuring. The Australian Council of Trade Unions
Australian Council of Trade Unions
The Australian Council of Trade Unions is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions.-History:The ACTU was formed in 1927 as the "Australian Council of Trade Unions"...
condemned the sacking as a gross act of collusion between Patrick, the Government, and the National Farmers Federation, and with the threat of legal action against the Government and Patrick Corporation, a settlement was negotiated to allow some reform with the MUA retaining its effective closed shop.
The last quarter of the 20th century has seen the proportion of employees in the workforce belonging to a union falling from 51 per cent in 1976 to about 23 per cent in 2005.
Industrial Relations changes in 2005
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
power of trade unions look set to continue. In May 2005 the Howard Government announced its Industrial Relations changes known as WorkChoices
WorkChoices
The Workplace Relations Act 1996, as amended by the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, popularly known as Work Choices, was a Legislative Act of the Australian Parliament that came into effect in March 2006 which involved many controversial amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996, the...
. This legislation received widespread criticism from the Australian union movement, many religious and community groups and, significantly (but not widely reported), the International Labour Organization
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...
, of which Australia is a member.
On 30 June 2005 up to 100,000 people marched through Melbourne in opposition to the proposed industrial relations changes, with meetings also held in capital cities and regional towns around Australia.
On 15 November 2005, the ACTU organised a national day of protest
Australian industrial relations legislation national day of protest, 2005
A national day of protest was held in Australia on 15 November 2005, to protest against the industrial relations legislation being introduced by the government of Prime Minister John Howard...
, during which the ACTU estimated 546,000 people took part in marches and protests in Australia's state capitals and other cities.. The rallies were addressed by State premiers and religious leaders. Other notable Australians, including former Prime Minister Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
, also spoke in opposition to the industrial relations changes. John Howard said that the protests will not change his policy and employer groups estimated that 95% of the workforce did not attend.
The Bill was passed by the Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
, with minor amendments, by a vote of 35-33 on 2 December 2005 and received the Royal Assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
on 14 December.
Following the defeat of the Howard Liberal government at the 2007 federal election, the Rudd Labor government moved quickly to outlaw Australian Workplace Agreement
Australian Workplace Agreement
Australian workplace agreements were formalized individual agreements negotiated by the boss and employee. Employers could offer "take it or leave it" AWAs as a condition of employment. They were registered by the employment advocate and did not require a dispute resolution procedure. These...
s (AWAs) amongst other changes.
WorkChoices
WorkChoices
The Workplace Relations Act 1996, as amended by the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, popularly known as Work Choices, was a Legislative Act of the Australian Parliament that came into effect in March 2006 which involved many controversial amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996, the...
legislation was superseded by the Fair Work Act 2009 on 1 July 2009 which, whilst seen as an improvement for workers, has attracted criticism from industry experts, the Australian Greens Party and organized labour, especially the Victorian Branch of the Electrical Trades Union
Electrical Trades Union of Australia
The Electrical Trades Union of Australia is a trade union in Australia which has a history stretching back over 100 years. In its modern form the ETU is a division of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union , although it is possibly the most well known of the three divisions...
. In May 2009 the findings of a secret report on the new legislation, commissioned by the executive of the Australian Council of Trade Unions
Australian Council of Trade Unions
The Australian Council of Trade Unions is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions.-History:The ACTU was formed in 1927 as the "Australian Council of Trade Unions"...
(ACTU), were revealed. The report found that "the act does not bring our laws into compliance with ILO standards". Geoff Borenstein, an in-house solicitor of the ETU stated that the Fair Work legislation breaches ILO conventions regarding the right to strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
, industrial action generally and restrictions on the content of industrial instruments (awards, collective agreements &c). Professor Ron McCallum
Ron McCallum
Professor Ronald Clive McCallum, AO is an Australian legal academic. He is an expert in labour law, and has served as a Professor and Dean of Law at the University of Sydney...
of the University of Sydney asserts that the new legislation will "probably" be deemed a breach of international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
by the International Labour Organization
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...
, particularly in regards to ILO Conventions 87 and 98.