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One of Australia’s biggest unions wants to charge all workers a fee for negotiating collective wage agreements, even if they don’t want to be members.
United Workers National Secretary Tim Kennedy even questioned the sustainability of the movement as membership falls to record lows.
This is despite the unions regaining the power to make agreements that cover more than one company and, in theory, entire industries.
United Workers National Secretary Tim Kennedy (pictured, center) has suggested that non-members should pay a fee to unions to participate in collective bargaining.
Unions can drag companies into these agreements if they meet certain conditions and workers vote in favor.
Early childhood workers, 150,000 of whom are represented by the United Workers Union, will be a test case of the laws.
“As it currently stands, this minority of workers is expected to carry the burden of up to 50-60 percent of the workforce … so there are plenty of opportunities,” Kennedy said. the Sydney Morning Herald.
Most people would tell you: that doesn’t seem fair to you, does it?
Early childhood workers, such as those seen during a protest in Melbourne in 2017, will be part of a test case of the new multi-employer bargain introduced by the Albanian government.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, union membership is only 12.5 per cent of the workforce, after decades of decline.
Kennedy said his union’s bargaining power was hampered by its declining membership.
“Ultimately, we’re going to need hundreds of thousands of workers who decide to join our union, maybe a million workers, if it’s going to be sustainable in the long term,” he said.
Mr. Kennedy admitted that the mechanism for charging non-union members a fee to participate in collective agreements had not yet been worked out.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar dismissed the idea as one of “self-interest” by union officials failing to attract new members to join.
Children hold signs supporting striking early childhood educators, and the main union represents the sustainability-conscious sector with which it can bargain with dwindling membership.
“Australians are not going to pay a mandatory tax to unions for so-called services they didn’t ask for and don’t use, to subsidize unions they have actively chosen not to join,” he said.
“Unions should rethink the product they offer Australian workers before complaining about workplace entry rules that already give them a more than fair chance.”
ACTU secretary Sally McManus also argued that non-union members “take advantage” of union bargaining efforts.
“Union members, if we get those results, it doesn’t mean everyone else who isn’t in the union will get those pay increases,” he said in June.
They won’t, they’ll have to fend for themselves. This is how the system works.
Under Australia’s new employment relations laws, which passed in an extended week of parliament in November, employers will not be able to ban staff from discussing their pay.
Workers will be able to demand flexible hours and more easily sue former employers to recover lost wages and rights.
The laws also strengthen the powers of the Fair Work Commission to close the gender pay gap.
ACTU chief Sally McManus (pictured centre) has also noted that non-union members can “ride for free”.
Short-term contracts that effectively keep workers on endless probation will be banned, the ‘zombie deals’ of the WorkChoices era will be ended, and the red tape of general best-off testing will be eliminated.
By the time they were passed through parliament, Mr McKellar called the laws fundamentally flawed and argued that they put Australian jobs and businesses at risk.
He said the laws “will do nothing to achieve the goal of raising wages, and will only add cost and complexity to Australian businesses at a time when they are faced with deteriorating conditions.”
“Ultimately, this bill represents a fundamental decoupling of wages from productivity and will detract from the flexibility and dynamism that modern economies require,” he said.