Union reform

There are reports that the Australian Labor Party are going to propose improvements to union governance.

It is of course doubtful that anything proposed by the ALP will address the core issue of the lack of genuine democracy within unions, without which there cannot be accountability.

Unions have played an important part in making our society more equal and democratic, but are not playing that role to any significant degree any longer.

While there are of course other factors like structural changes in the economy, this diminished role is in large part due to the capture of the union movement by the union bosses, largely indistinguishable from the bosses unions were formed to counter.

This has undermined the ability of unions to evolve in a changing environment as union bosses instead focus on their careers in the ALP and other perks.

While certainly not all unions are as undemocratic as the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA), controlled for decades by Joe de Bruyn who runs it more like a rightwing Catholic cult than a union, or the Australian Workers Union, or the Health Services Union, all unions tend to be controlled by a small cabal that is essentially immune to democratic control by their members.

Australian unions are an excellent demonstration of the iron law of oligarchy, where organisations, even those ostensibly in favour of democracy, over time tend to become controlled by a small elite able to consolidate power and defend their position from the workings of democracy.

There are some things that could be done to reinvigorate the union movement and put it in the hands of the rank and file rather than union bosses:-

1. A requirement for union positions to be determined in free and fair annual elections conducted by an electoral commission. No donations from non-members to internal campaigns, and limits on donations and expenditure.
2. Other democratic reforms such as recall mechanisms, term limits, requirement for significant decision to be made by referendum, and a template for democratic constitutions.
3. Union official’s compensation to be tied to average wages of the industries they represent.
4. Unions to be subject to financial accountability similar to companies.
5. Political donations by unions to require consent of individual union members on an annual basis.
6. Any party and factional affiliation is on the basis of individual union members opting in on an annual basis and paying an additional fee.
7. Union members to be able to initiate de-amalgamations of their unions, and be able to initiate sections of unions splitting and joining other unions.
8. Union membership be portable to allow members to join the more democratic union, and provide an incentive for less democratic unions to change to avoid losing members.
9. Lowering barriers to new unions. Demarcation to be determined by individual member affiliation.
10. Other possibilities might be the use of Delegative Democracy for internal governance, a possible way of combating the iron law using technology.

Unions as organisations of working people should be making a significant contribution to bettering our society as they have historically, but it seems likely that in order to do so rather than the current rearguard action and functioning as a step in the career path for opportunists, they will need to undergo significant democratic reform.