The Rise and Decline of Australian Unionism: A History of Industrial Labour from the 1820S to 2010 (Essay‪)‬

Pioneer union activist and labour historian, W.G. Spence, opens his famed study of the labour movement by reflecting on the unusual conditions under which European settlement in Australia began. (1) He went on to note that the first and most fundamental point of difference between the Australian experience and that of the Old World lay in the fact that the 'white man gave no consideration to the black man's rights'. The Aboriginal population was dispossessed of 'enormous areas', allowing for the creation of an immensely profitable economy based upon the exploitation of the land's natural resources. (2) Upon this all else was built, including a union movement of unusual character whose initial mass following lay in mining and pastoralism. In the twentieth century the peculiar nature of Australian unionism became more pronounced as arrangements for the compulsory conciliation and arbitration of industrial disputes were adopted by the Commonwealth and most states. Bolstered by this regulatory system, national union density never once fell below 40 per cent between 1913 and 1992, and was typically much higher. The central place of trade unionism in Australian life appeared immutable. However, this notion has become untenable. At the time of writing, less than 20 per cent of the workforce is unionised. What has caused this waxing and waning of support for industrial labour? While unionism clearly benefited from compulsory arbitration, and suffered from its dismantling, it is simplistic to argue, as some have done, that the growth and survival of industrial labour in this country has depended on this system of industrial regulation. (3) Industrial labour existed for at least 80 years before arbitration laws were first enacted. Its rapid growth after 1900 was the result of a number of factors, not just arbitration, including the union movement's own organising efforts, an expansion of manufacturing and more favourable labour market circumstances. Nor was union decline initiated by arbitration's gradual demise. Support for unionism (measured as the percentage of the workforce who held a union ticket) peaked in 1948, when few questioned arbitration's benefits. Why then did union decline begin at this point, rather than at some earlier or later time?