Coalition drops WorkChoices: an opportunity for unions

One must wonder how Julie Bishop, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Opposition Spokesperson for Industrial Relations and Mining Interests, felt about the Liberal Party strategy paper on IR. Ms Bishop is known to be an anti-union IR hardliner yet her party is now seriously considering making Forward with Fairness a bipartisan keystone of Australian politics. The very fact that it was leaked to the Australian highlights the discension within Coalition ranks about how to deal with the extremist policy. However, the moderate element of the Liberal Party’s struggle to retain political relevance represents a real opportunity for the union movement to shake itself of the ALP headlock.

Trade Unionism 101

There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding the state of the Unions in Australia over the last 15 odd years. Chances are, if you are visiting this blog, you will not need yet another overview of the great decline in union density and numbers, the Howard Government’s attacks on organised labour with WorkChoices, and the impact of the globalisation of capital. Please don’t get me wrong, there are some quality pieces of analysis covering these events and trends. However, this blog is primarily about the renewal of the Australian trade union movement.