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As private sector union membership sinks to record lows, heeding new laws and the success of a resurgent US labour movement could help.
Union leaders in Australia say they should be looking to their peers in the United Kingdom and United States, where worker-led organised labour is having a “moment”, to boost memberships as local private sector take-up sinks to a record low.
Recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals private sector union membership has shrunk from 956,200 in 2016 to 779,700 in 2022. The fall accounted for a 20% drop across the private sector and leaves union membership at just 8% of the workforce.
United Workers Union national secretary Tim Kennedy said that although hostile anti-union legislation was likely to have affected membership numbers, the movement as a whole could do better to centre worker-led action and reach youth in the workplace. He pointed to the success of Starbucks baristas and Amazon workers in the US.
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