Union-Avoidance Strategies in the Meat Industry in Australia and the United States

Abstract

The meat industries in the United States and in Australia share a number of common features, including similar economic and industrial development, overlapping ownership patterns, the nature of the work, a trend toward relying on a migrant workforce, and similar management union-avoidance strategies. There are industry differences between the two countries due primarily to the unique labor-relations regulatory system in each country. Australian legislation since the mid-1990s has enabled industry employers to follow more closely the pattern of union avoidance established in the United States, but protections are still found in Australian industry awards and the industrial tribunal. Both countries have witnessed a deunionization of the industry at the cost of declines in workers’ wages and conditions, and worker exploitation is increasingly common due to the neoliberal ideology that influences government policy and legislation and encourages employers to individualize the employment relationship.