Australian Unions Need to Stop Pinning Their Hopes on the Labor Party
Since the 1980s, Australian unions have subordinated everything to getting Labor elected. It’s a failed strategy that has diminished union power, leading to declining wages and conditions for workers.
Secretary of the ACTU Sally McManus visits Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on March 18, 2021. (Sam Mooy / Getty Images)
In the lead-up to the Labor government’s Jobs and Skills Summit next month, the union movement faces a dilemma.
The first option is to continue relying on Labor to end neoliberalism, a strategy that has seen the union movement decline precipitously. The second option is for the unions to rebuild ground-up industrial power and fight for the change they want to see.
Rebuilding industrial strength will necessitate confronting a hostile Labor government. Employers and the media will also seize on a resurgence of militancy to attack Anthony Albanese’s Australian Labor Party (ALP). Consequently, the unions must choose between defending the ALP’s interests or their members’ interests — they cannot do both.
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