Dear Mr Abbott..

After travelling around the world and looking at the various employment relations adopted in countries including Denmark, China and India, we have reached our final destination - our home. This week, we were challenged to write a letter to our current Prime Minister, reflecting on our current employment relations.

Dear Mr Abbott,

I am writing this letter as part of a university course where I have had the opportunity to study employment relations on an international spectrum. This has been quite interesting, not only looking at the different dynamics among countries, but particularly in assessing the effects globalisation has had on their employment relations. Whilst some have thrived or remained strong, some have struggled and are currently in need of major reform. Personally, I feel Australia's employment relations are still relatively strong, however there is one aspect that has been adversely impact and that is the unions.

The union density in Australia has been on a continuing decline for past two decades and is not showing any great signs of an increase in the near future. This decline in membership has only further weakened their power, resulting in unions looking insignificant within the employment relationship. This is only exemplified by statistics such as the fact that in 1990 union density was at 49%, compared to 2007 where it had dropped to 19.5%. The disappointing reality is that unions were very important within the history of our employment relations, however they appear to have failed to keep up with the transformations caused by globalisation, leaving them weak and leaving employees somewhat weak.

Majority of the reasons associated with this significant decline in density and power are indeed ones that are unfortunately caused by the unions themselves. Firstly, unions have failed to keep up with globalisation and rather than adapting, they initially tried to fight or ignore this ideology. Secondly, the anti-unionism sentiment expressed by employers  has made it more difficult to maintain a strong position. The most important factor however, is the changes that globalisation has brought, particularly the decline in full-time employment and the increase in part-time and casual work. Rather than restructuring and targeting both full-time and part-time/casual employees, unions maintained their position focusing solely on full-time employees. This was severely detrimental to their membership numbers. Similarly, with these changes it meant changes in employment demographics including the average age of workers and an increase in the presence of female employees - yet unions continued to focus on middle-aged men, meaning they were missing a large portion of the workforce.

In my opinion, Australia's unions need to attempt to rebuild their power in order to become a key player in employment relations once again. The introduction of the Fair Work Act was the perfect opportunity for the unions to undergo a reform and to re-emerge as a strong party, however I do not believe they took advantage of this.

I feel that Australia needs to adopt a similar approach to Denmark when it comes to our unions - their 'Danish model', otherwise referred to as the 'negotiated economy' refers to the internal coordination that exists between the state, the unions and employers. I understand that this will not be an easy task, however I feel this would be effective in the long-term in securing the position of unions and fostering better employment relations in our country.

At the end of the day, it comes down to two questions:
1. Is there any point joining a union who will not adequately represent you?
2. If there is no union presence, who will protect us workers or should we be left to fend for ourselves?

I hope this letter provides an insight into our employment relations and the need for the restructuring of our unions.

Kindest Regards,

Sian Bothman