Trade Union Amalgamations: Explaining the Recent Spate of Mergers in Australia

Tomkins, Matthew

doi:10.1080/10301763.1999.10669200

Cited by 6 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…There is some literature that suggests such opposition forced changes upon the ACTU merger plan (Dabscheck 1995;Chaison 1996). The most comprehensive empirical study of union political factors found that mergers depended upon leadership from both the ACTU and the merger partners (Tomkins 1999). As for the membership, this study concluded 'the members have .…”

Section: Number Of Reduction In Number Ofmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Tomkins' survey of union officers indicated that declining membership was a motive to merge, but confirmed little else from this list (Tomkins 1999). At best the impact of economic factors was felt only through the intermediate variable of membership decline.…”

Section: Number Of Reduction In Number Ofmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The second type of explanation identifies environmental influences on union merger policy and action. Most important here is Tomkins' analysis (Tomkins 1999). He separates three types of causal variable that impact on merger activity--organisational factors, politico-institutional factors, and economic factors.…”

Section: Number Of Reduction In Number Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently it has been argued that changes in public policy were designed to 'reform union structure' (Chaison 1996: 123). This argument is called into question by the recent work of Tomkins (1999). Tomkins fails to find a statistically significant relationship between ALP Policy and the propensity of unions to participate in mergers.…”

Section: Government and Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 There are three dominant explanations for this merger wave. The first is a political explanation which attributes the merger wave to the influence of the ACTU (Davis 1990;Griffin 1992;Dabscheck 1995;Chaison 1996;Tomkins 1999). The second explanation considers the growth of decentralised bargaining to be the force driving merger policy (Chaison 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The Australian Union Merger Wave Revisited

Hose

Rimmer

2002

J Indust Relat

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W hat factors explain the Australian trade union merger wave between 1991 and 1994? Existing explanations largely attribute it to the pro-amalgamation policy of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and other union leaders, and to declining union membership and decentralised bargaining. This paper reviews discussion of the causes of mergers and publicly available evidence upon them. It concludes that current explanations of the merger wave are an over-simplification. The effects of ACTU leadership, official union policy, and members' views are complex and not uniform and require more disaggregated analysis. Also, there has been a tendency to overstate the importance of membership decline and decentralised bargaining and to overlook other environmental factors such as changing occupational structure. The paper cautions against the assumption that variables influencing ACTU policy also shape affiliate actions.

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Section: Number Of Reduction In Number Ofmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Number Of Reduction In Number Ofmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Number Of Reduction In Number Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Government and Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The Australian Union Merger Wave Revisited

Hose

Rimmer

2002

J Indust Relat

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Merging with the metals: an analysis of the role micro-political relationships played in the merger of the Printing and Kindred Industries Union with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union

Blissett

2018

Labor History

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The Structural Events Approach — A `Better' Way to Understand Long-term Change in Trade Union Structure: The Australian Story (1986—96)

Saville

2007

Journal of Industrial Relations

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Traditional studies of long-term change in trade union structure have predominantly focused on aggregate trends in union merger activity in constructing explanations of change. Using the Australian trade union movement as an example, this article argues that our understanding of the long-term change in the external structure of trade unions would be better served by a structural events approach (Waddington, 1995) that examines the incidence of union formations, dissolutions, and breakaways, in addition to that of union mergers. In doing so, this article presents new data on structural change in the Australian trade union movement between 1986 and 1996, and explains the additional contribution made by union dissolutions and union formations to the reductionist effects of the merger wave that dominated these years.

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Trade Union Amalgamations: Explaining the Recent Spate of Mergers in Australia

Cited by 6 publications

References 27 publications

The Australian Union Merger Wave Revisited

The Australian Union Merger Wave Revisited

Merging with the metals: an analysis of the role micro-political relationships played in the merger of the Printing and Kindred Industries Union with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union

The Structural Events Approach — A `Better' Way to Understand Long-term Change in Trade Union Structure: The Australian Story (1986—96)

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