Peak union bodies, organizations formed by trade unions acting collectively, have been part of the union landscape from the very earliest years of union organization. Yet, despite this long presence, peak unions have garnered relatively little academic and theoretical attention. Despite a growing scholarship on the role and activities of peak unions, analysis of their internal power dynamics remains limited. This article seeks to add to our theoretical understanding of peak unions by proposing a conceptual framework that focuses on peak union power through the original concepts of 'organization power' and 'collective movement power'.
Debates about women's participation, representation, and leadership in trade unions frequently focus on the role of separate organizing. This article examines the historical use of separate organizing by women and its effect in an Australian state peak union, the Victorian Trades Hall Council (THC). Adoption of different forms of separate organizing in the 1910s, in particular autonomous organizing through women-only unions, transformed the gender profile of the THC. A subsequent shift in union strategy to support for industrial unionism led to union amalgamations, which saw the absorption of most of the women's unions by the 1920s. The key issue is the degree to which this separate organizing campaign had an ongoing influence through the interwar years. In particular, the article looks at the experiences of the 1910s generation of women activists, the impact of amalgamation for the women's THC profile, the community they formed, and some of the issues they debated in the THC. The 1920s and 1930s saw a steady decline in women's representation and fading influence in the THC, as a result of a lack of sustained support for separate organizing by the THC and contradictory attitudes among its affiliates. Downloaded from Labor Studies Journal 36 (2) union density have outpaced increases or offset declines in male union density (see Eurofound [2009]). For trade unions faced with declining membership, these patterns offer both opportunities and challenges. As a consequence, debates about union renewal and revitalization increasingly need to consider the impact of gender (Milkman 2007;Yates 2006). As Cobble (2007, 9) argues, "women transformed labor organizations in the past and will continue to do so in the future."Faced with an increasing number of women members, a key objective for many unions is to increase women's representation in trade unions and their participation in leadership positions. Contemporary trade union practices include the adoption of a variety of strategies to increase women's representation, activism, and voice. Of significance has been the use of separate organizing, whether in the form of women's committees, women's education, and women's conferences or, to use the inclusive term of Parker (2002), women's groups. The International Trade Union Confederation's (ITUC) 1st World Women's Conference in October 2009 included a forum on women as decision makers and a panel exploring young women's voice in their union. In the accompanying discussion guide, women's committees were identified as a critical strategy in strengthening women's voice in their unions (ITUC/CSI/IGB 2009, 41). The continuing significance of women's committees in the ITUC, in global and national peak unions 1 and in individual unions reinforces the role of separate organizing by women as a means of advancing their interests.Researchers are now able to trace the impact of contemporary women's separate organizing given the longevity of many of these women's groups (Parker 2003(Parker , 2006. 2 Equally, if we look at early trade union...
In 2011, Australian unions successfully extended collective bargaining in some quarters while, in others, they engaged in lengthy industrial campaigns. At the heart of a number of these campaigns lay the issue of job security and controls over staffing. The challenge to managerial prerogative prompted some unforeseen actions, including lockouts, by employers, the most dramatic example being seen at Qantas. Unexpectedly, this also included an employer preference for arbitration not previously seen under the Fair Work Act 2009. Union activity to increase union density remained a challenge, with the Australian Council of Trade Unions shifting to a campaigning focus in an attempt to identify salient issues confronting members. Relations with the federal government were overall fairly positive, in particular, with some advances made in the area of occupational health and safety. This was in contrast to relations with a number of state governments as a result of their bargaining tactics and strategies.
With the global financial crisis posing an ongoing threat to job security, more positive experiences of trade unions were often overshadowed in 2009. The passage and commencement of the Fair Work Act finally brought Work Choices to an end, or so it seemed until leadership change in the federal Liberal Party revived debate over individual contracts at the end of the year. The still difficult relationship between the unions and the Rudd federal government was in evidence throughout the year, and was underlined at the ACTU Congress. The return of Telstra and the major banks to the bargaining table with unions demonstrated a significant shift in the collective bargaining and industrial relations landscape in 2009. Occupational health and safety issues confronting unions included further developments concerning James Hardie and asbestos, workplace fatalities in the Pilbara and harmonization of occupational health and safety laws.
IntroductionImages of workers on film often create lasting impressions about the type of work done, the people doing that work and the collective relationships they form. Norma Rae (1979) for instance, depicts work in a textile mill surrounded by almost impenetrable noise, conducted at a pace that can kill, with personal relationships that then develop a collective form as the This qualitative study analyses existing literature, uses content and document analysis of union documents, publications, websites and interviews and analyses a selection of films. Our criteria were that the films were made by, for and about Australian unionized nurses 2 . We begin by briefly considering the literature on nurses and industrial action, including media representations. Five Australian films made by nurses and their unions (henceforth nursemade films) are then outlined followed by analysis of the key issues of presentation and representation. We then turn to a discussion of the distribution and exhibition of such films. Nurses and industrial actionThere is a considerable literature on nurses and industrial action, with studies spanning different countries in Europe, North America and Australasia, and across time periods (see Briskin 2012). Strike action has received particular attention, most notably the 50-day long 1986 Victorian nurses' strike (Bessant 1992;Curlewis, 1988Curlewis, , 1989 Fox 1991;McManamy 1986). Redolent through the literature are three themes, professionalism, proletarianization and patriarchy, most recently discussed by Briskin (2012). These all shape the issue of selfidentity and have been explored both in specific dispute analyses as well as broader Whether these good women/nurses could also be 'good unionists' lies at the heart of many analyses. This is exemplified by Henttonen et al's evocative title "Staining the White
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