Australian Council Of Trade Unions Research Articles

Impact of regulatory and other changes on Australian unions’ strategies and campaigns, 2023–2024

This article reviews the challenges and opportunities facing Australian trade unions in 2023–2024. It covers industry challenges for specific unions and the changes introduced by the Federal Labor Government through its Closing the Loopholes Amendments to the Fair Work Act. It argues that the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and individual unions need to take the opportunity provided by the Federal Government's legal changes to make gains for members so that they are difficult to overturn if the federal government changes. It analyses campaigns and strategies of unions around challenges specific to them: for example, the recruitment of gig workers by the Transport Workers’ Union and campaigns by the ACTU and the Media and Entertainment Arts Alliance around inappropriate use of artificial intelligence by employers seeking to replace workers and usurp employees’ ownership rights to their work. It considers amalgamations (mergers) and disamalgamations (demergers) of concern for some unions. It discusses allegations of inappropriate behaviour facing the Construction and General Division of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees’ Union leading to its forced administration as a concern and possible impediment for the entire union movement if not resolved effectively.

ACTU congress Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Forum 2024

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is the peak body for Australian unions, which is made up of 38 affiliated unions, who together represent approximately 1.8 million workers, their families and their communities. Every three years the ACTU holds its congress. Congress is ‘effectively a parliament for working people, where delegates debate and vote on policies regarding the workplace, rights, and campaigns to improve wages, conditions and quality of life for Australian workers and their families’ (ACTU, 2024). As the ACTU's highest decision-making authority, congress sets the union agenda for the next three years

New angles and long walks: building regional networks through union education

PurposeThis article examines the role the Australian Trade Union Training Authority (TUTA) played in international education through the provision of trade union courses and exchanges. We consider how an investigation of trade union networks contributes to a richer understanding of international education linkages.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on research conducted for an Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded project: Trade union training: reshaping the Australian industrial landscape (ARC LP180100500). This research involved a critical analysis of 60 semi-structured oral history interviews and textual archives, including the official records held by the National Archives of Australia and papers held by the Noel Butlin Archives, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and in private collections.FindingsTUTA was established primarily as a national union training organisation, but from its inception, it also acted as a hub for the development of regional and international labour networks. The nature of TUTA’s work placed it at the intersection of international trade union and educational domains. Although there were some points of contact with formal international programs (e.g. Japan–Australia and Kellogg Foundations, the Colombo Plan and US Department of Labour exchanges schemes), the specific contribution of TUTA is overlooked in the educational exchange literature. The role of TUTA is revealed through institutional connections and individual experiences.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research is required to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of TUTA from the perspective of former participants in international TUTA course and current and former trade unionists in the Asia–Pacific.Originality/valueThis article builds new knowledge by examining the connections forged in the Asia–Pacific region at the intersection of trade union and educational networks, an area often overlooked in the literature on educational exchange.

How do trade unions manage themselves? A study of Australian unions’ administrative practices

Dedication We gratefully acknowledge the invaluable contributions to the research that we discuss here by our dear friend and colleague the late Dr Sandra Cockfield; we miss her greatly. We dedicate this article to her. For a tribute to her see www.monash.edu/vale/home/articles/vale-dr-sandra-cockfield . The article discusses issues rarely addressed in research on Australian unions: the internal management policies and practices of unions, including human resource management, budgeting and strategy formulation. Management matters because it creates processes and systems that focus activity on whatever objectives a union or other organisation wishes to achieve. Our main research question is ‘how do Australian unions manage their employees, budgets, and strategies?’ Our study builds on earlier studies of US, UK and Canadian unions by adapting a survey instrument used in these countries. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) asked national and branch unions to complete our online surveys. Of the unions surveyed, a majority of respondents use systematic human resource management policies and practices. They have also adopted strategic planning and budgeting practices. Echoing international findings, Australian unions have increasingly professionalised their administration. These findings are important since they have implications for how Australian unions deal with the challenges they face, including their revitalisation efforts and their responses to changing regulatory contexts.

'Get Close To The Workers, Stay Close To The Workers': The Shift to Digital Organising During Covid-19

'Get Close To The Workers, Stay Close To The Workers':The Shift to Digital Organising During Covid-19 Nicole McPherson (bio) Like many trade unions, in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic the Finance Sector Union (FSU) had shifted from a servicing model of unionism to an organising model1. This had been an uneasy transition and remains a work in progress as unions continue to grapple with role that servicing plays in an organising union2. At the same time, unions are acknowledging that the organising model alone has not been sufficient to arrest the decline in union membership, and must to be supplemented with new ways of bringing people to their union3. Alongside this transition to an organising model of unionism has been a shift towards digital organising and campaigning. Australia's union peak body, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has established the Innovation Hub to support digital innovation to achieve 'union growth and have a greater impact'4. Early steps saw the union employ digital marketers in the communications team (not the organising team) and saw digital as separate to 'real' organising The FSU was an early supporter of the ACTU Innovation Hub, and was eager to develop capacity for digital organising. It is instructive that in its move towards in digital organising, some of the first steps the FSU took were to implement new customer relationship management (CRM) software, and employ digital marketers and digital campaigners who sat in the communications team (not the organising team). This illustrates the FSU's early conception of digital organising as a communications channel and separate to 'real' organising. March 2020: Enter COVID-19 As COVID-19 cases rose in Australia in early 20205, many large employers started to direct their staff to work from home. FSU members working in Australian banks, insurance and superannuation firms were some of the earliest to be directed to work from home6. Many banks closed at least some of their retail branches, or reduced their operating hours7. Even where workers were still working on site, due to COVID-19 restrictions, Union organisers were generally not permitted to attend. It was no longer safe for organisers to be in the field. Until this time, FSU digital organising efforts were largely limited to email communications, and Facebook and WhatsApp groups for delegates to stay in touch. Certainly, for organising staff, their main organising methods involved getting into a car and going to speak to workers face to face. Organising was forced to shift from field to digital overnight. In mid-March, 2020, the FSU directed all of its staff to work from home indefinitely. The short time frame meant that the Union's focus was on the practical aspects of this shift-did the Union's staff have the hardware needed to work from home? In normal circumstances, the project to move staff to work remotely would have been a months-long undertaking, but like many organisations, the FSU achieved it in a matter of days when there was no alternative. What this meant though, was that there has been no opportunity to build the Union's digital organising capacity-neither of the organisers, nor of delegates and members. July 2020: Campaigning in COVID Throughout 2020 and 2021, public health directives dictated that many people work from home, but people performing 'essential' services were permitted to attend their usual place of work8. This created tension between people who were allowed (or required) to work safely from home, and those who had to expose themselves to COVID-19 by attending work in retail bank branches. At a Zoom meeting of Union members, a member suggested that people working in customer-facing environments should receive an additional payment to compensate for the increased risk they were facing. After testing the idea with members, the FSU created a petition to call on Australia's largest banks to provide a $5 per hour essential allowance to all frontline finance workers9. The immediate challenge was bringing members into this campaign without the ability to visit them. Calling people individually lacked scale. Broadcast email enabled broad but shallow engagement. In a...

The “Eloquence” of Robert J. Hawke: United States informer, 1973–79

In the 1970s, the leader of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and future Prime Minister of Australia, Robert J. “Bob” Hawke, was an informer of the United States of America. Using diplomatic cables from official archives, this article shows that Hawke gifted information about the Australian government, the Australian Labor Party and the labour movement, assisting the intelligence gathering efforts of the foreign power. In turn, the relationship influenced the development of Australian policy, including the abandonment of Keynesian economics and embrace of neoliberalism. His discreet relationship — discussed in detail for the first time — was not unusual among elites in the post‐war period. However, Hawke was especially entrenched in the practise. This article will also show, through historiography and memoir, that the act of informing by elites began in the 1940s, as the United States was becoming Australia’s key strategic ally.

20 ilo Committee on Freedom of Association: Complaint against the Government of Australia presented by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (actu) supported by Building and Wood Workers’ International (bwi), Case No. 3278, Report in which the committee requests to be kept informed of development – Report No. 388, 14–28 March 2019

20 ilo Committee on Freedom of Association: Complaint against the Government of Australia presented by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (actu) supported by Building and Wood Workers’ International (bwi), Case No. 3278, Report in which the committee requests to be kept informed of development – Report No. 388, 14–28 March 2019

Changing the Unions’ Agenda: Women’s Activism in Australian Trade Unions in the 1970s and 1980s

This paper takes a preliminary look at women’s activities in trade unions in the 1970s and 1980s and the ways in which women’s activism changed unions through the instigation of the Working Women’s Charter, women’s committees and training for women. Women’s activism in trade unions created distinct spaces for women to support each other, to develop policies and to work together for their acceptance and adoption within unions. This resulted in major changes to policies that addressed women’s specific needs within trade unions and in the wider society. The activism of the 1970s and 1980s formed the foundation for ongoing changes in policies and representation in trade unions. This article focuses on the experiences of women as they worked within unions to make changes and charts some of the major changes at the national level of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. It draws on a limited range of sources and the author’s own experiences of the time.

Zubrycki’s point: Amongst Equals, utilitarian film in the Australian labour movement

ABSTRACTA film history project on the Australian trade union movement commissioned in the late 1980s for Australia’s bicentennial year, 1988, came to grief over differing views of the labour movement’s past and contention around the rights and ethics of the filmmaker when a work is commissioned or sponsored. In the political context of the late 1980s there had been a decade of collaboration between trade unions and artists, but in this case filmmaker Tom Zubrycki was caught in a web of intrigue and complex agendas as he sought to complete this sponsored film. Zubrycki challenged the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) for the right to finish and distribute Amongst Equals, but without success. The struggle to resolve the Amongst Equals dispute continued for years and flared into a heated public debate. This case study illustrates dilemmas facing the artist, historian or filmmaker making sponsored work. A feature-length version of the unfinished film, not seen since 1991with inter-titles identifying scenes that the ACTU wanted revised or deleted was screened by Melbourne Cinematheque in October 2018, marking 30 years since the Australian bicentennial.

Australian workers' climate action: Constraints and opportunities

10 | International Union Rights | 26/4 FOCUS | CLIMATE CHANGE & TRADE UNIONS Australian workers’ climate action: Constraints and opportunities Workers’ voice in the development of climate change strategies is both necessary for implementation and a right. At the workplace workers may exercise this voice collectively through union or non-union forms of representation. They may also act politically to influence government policy. In Australia all these forms of worker voice over climate change are evident, notwithstanding major political constraints. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) The national peak union body has played a policy leadership role since 1991, when it adopted a policy advocating regulatory action to reduce greenhouse gases and government leadership in international negotiations over climate change. In 1992 it published a policy booklet emphasising the importance of workers and unions becoming active in the transition process to a carbon neutral economy, since they would bear many of the costs and much of the responsibility for implementing changes, highlighting the associated issues of employment, industry development and social equity. In 2007 the ACTU linked climate change with creation of decent jobs and raising living standards. It also created a subcommittee on climate change and jobs, providing website resources for union climate activists. The ACTU has also developed climate action coalitions with other community and business groups. In 1993 the ACTU and Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) established a program promoting ‘green jobs’, funded by the federal Labor government. In 2008 they produced a report predicting that, with the right policy settings, substantial numbers of new jobs could be created by 2030, and launched Union Climate Connectors, an accessible online forum providing training and resources for union members. The ACF joined the ACTU and other community and business organisations in the Southern Cross Climate Coalition to promote a policy of a targeted economic stimulus and ‘green jobs’ growth in the wake of the global financial crisis. Additionally the ACTU participated in International Trade Union Confederation and ILO activities to develop ‘just transition’ policy and gain acceptance for unions as stakeholders in the Conferences of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Just transition links sustainable development with rights at work, decent work, green jobs and social protection. This policy includes a role for participation by workers and unions in developing climate mitigation policy and practices through social dialogue at the national level and collective bargaining at sectoral and workplace levels. Union divisions The concept of ‘just transition’ has varied in emphasis between unions, largely reflecting different employment circumstances for the industries of their membership. The Amalgamated Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) has advocated carbon pricing, state assistance for industry development, income support for displaced workers and inclusion of environmental policies in collective enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs). However, the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) supports compensation and protection for highly pollutive industries such as mining, with its support for climate action dependent on no job losses. The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU) is internally divided: Its Forestry Division has opposed policies to mitigate climate change, whilst the Mining and Energy Division has supported such policies. Yet, in the 2019 federal elections when the Liberal/National Party Coalition promised to support new coalmines in the state of Queensland, CFMMEU mining members helped the Coalition win marginal seats and re-election to government. Some of the most proactive unions for climate action are in the education and public administration sectors. The most prominent example is the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), which has developed a range of strategies, including creation of university workplace environmental committees, bargaining for environmental clauses in EBAs, and reduction of its own energy usage. Political environment The current political environment denies the critical elements for just transition: strong climate policy and opportunities for significant workers’ voice. The Labor governments of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard prioritised climate action, culminating in the 2011 carbon price. However a concerted anticarbon price campaign by business and the Liberal/ National Coalition helped the latter to victory in 2013, leading to the abolition of carbon pricing and substantial winding back of climate policy. The government’s expressly pro-carbon, anti-climate action political stance recently led the Prime Minister to speculate...

Regulating casual employment in Australia

The rise of precarious and non-standard working arrangements has received substantial attention in recent times. In Australia precarious work has been particularly associated with the phenomenon of casual work, defined as employment without the leave benefits provided by the National Employment Standards. Casual employment status is at the employers' discretion. It may be long term and involve short shifts of less than 4 hours. In the recent Modern Awards Review by the Australian Fair Work Commission, the Australian Council of Trade Unions submitted proposals to limit employers' ability to unilaterally determine the employment relationship and to reduce the degree of precariousness associated with casual employment. The Australian Council of Trade Unions sought the right for long-term casuals to convert to permanent employment and to extend minimum hours for shifts. This article surveys the evidence, primary and secondary, regarding the extent and nature of Australian casual employment, including its impact on flexibility, earnings security and productivity. In this context, we explore the implications of the Australian Council of Trade Unions claims and Fair Work Commission decision, and present data from a survey of casual employees regarding employment preferences. Whilst some employees prefer casual status, we find that many would benefit from protective regulations, and that most casuals support such regulation.

Unions and collective bargaining in Australia in 2017

In 2017, Australian unions faced ongoing membership decline and new institutional constraints, but emerged reinvigorated from a change in leadership and a policy re-set. Many unions faced a hostile environment for bargaining, with protracted negotiations in key sectors, attended by robust industrial action at times. The decline in union members and collective agreements reached a crisis point. A surprisingly diverse collection of individuals expressed concerns that the system of enterprise bargaining was not producing outcomes that were fair or economically sustainable, with some questioning whether the system had created the level playing field its architects had envisioned, as well expressing growing unease that reforms intended to constrain unions were undermining the original objective of the legislation. Heading into 2018, unions and the Australian Council of Trade Unions were seeking a political and legislative solution to the seemingly entrenched industrial difficulties they face, campaigning around the theme ‘change the rules’. Without significant change in the system, it is difficult to see that the coming years will see any change to these dominant patterns.

Simultaneously deepening corporatism and advancing neoliberalism: Australia under the Accord

Given recent calls for a new social contract between the unions and government, it is timely to consider the relationship of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) prices and incomes Accord (1983–97) to the construction of neoliberalism in Australia. Contrary to most scholarly accounts, which posit the ALP and ACTU prices and incomes Accord and neoliberalism as exogenously related or competing processes, this article argues they were internally related aspects of economic transformation. The implementation of the Accord agreement deepened Australia’s existing corporatist arrangements while simultaneously advancing neoliberalism within a highly structured political-economic framework.

“There's No Flies at Noonkanbah but the Scabs Are on the Way”: Trade Union Support for Aboriginal Rights during the Noonkanbah Dispute, 1979–80

In the late 1970s the Noonkanbah Aboriginal community in the Kimberley region of Western Australia took a determined stand against oil exploration on their land. The exploration was to be carried out by a US-based multinational, and had been approved by the Liberal government of Charles Court. The campaign found many allies, including the trade union movement. Trade union support included an official Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and Trades and Labor Council of Western Australia (TLC) ban placed on drilling for oil which was actively supported by members of the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) and Australian Workers’ Union (AWU), who refused to transport cargo and drill for oil respectively. This case study of union industrial action taken in support Aboriginal rights has not been adequately documented or analysed. The evidence shows that important preconditions for this labour movement contribution were a high level of industrial militancy and confidence among unions, and political leadership from some activists within the movement who supported a broader agenda of social change.

Changes in labour and safety regulation offshore: the productivity implications

In recent years there have been ongoing tussles regarding the regulation of employment in the offshore oil and gas industry. Much of this conflict relates to the extent of union involvement in the industry, and the impact increased union activity may have on cost and productivity. This conflict has played out in the courts, legislature and the media. It is evidenced in the debate over the application of Australian migration laws to foreign workers offshore. This has involved lobbying by a number of organisations and Federal and High Court challenges to parliamentary intervention. Whether these laws apply has important implications for industry, as they include the practicalities and cost of engaging adequately skilled contractors for specialist tasks on major projects. Another recent example is the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) advocating for the application of the harmonised workplace health and safety regulations to the offshore industry. The application of these regulations would likely affect the extent of union involvement in the workplace, and have consequent cost and efficiency implications. In this extended abstract the author examines the impacts on industry of: recent and upcoming changes in employment regulation; uncertainties around the application of employment laws offshore; proposed changes to safety regulation; and, areas where industry is seeing advocacy for change.

Report: Australian Unions Win Landmark Accident Make-up Pay Case

Since the 1970s, the significance of make-up pay has fluctuated depending on the adequacy of weekly payments available under state workers’ compensation legislation. From the 1970s through to the latter part of the 1980s there was an, uneven but, upward trajectory in weekly payments and their duration. Since then the general trend has been in the opposite direction, reflected in the winding back of entitlements and the widespread use of step-downs in weekly payments. In the wake of these setbacks, accident make-up pay remains an issue of significant relevance for the Australian labour movement. The reason is not hard to find. In New South Wales and Victoria, for example, injured workers receive no more than 80 percent of their average pre-injury earnings if unable to return to work within 13 weeks. A stepdown of this magnitude equates to a pay cut of 20 percent - a high price to pay for being injured at work and particularly so for low paid workers. Elsewhere in Australia, step-downs are not always as harsh or, where they are, come into force at a later date. The continuation, however, of accident pay provisions as an enforceable collective bargaining entitlement was brought into question by the award modernisation process which commenced in 2008. The stated aim of the modernisation process was to review and streamline Australia’s national industrial relations system. One of the crucial aspects involved was the extent to which existing entitlements remained relevant and should be incorporated in modern awards. In the case of accident pay provisions, employer groups argued for their exclusion from modern awards whereas unions and the federal Labor government sought to secure their inclusion. When the new system came into place in January 2010 over 1500 pre-existing awards had been reviewed and transformed into 122 modern awards. Accident pay was included, but only as a ‘transitional ’ provision to be reconsidered as part of a four yearly review of modern awards scheduled for 2014. Fair Work Safety Nets and Workers’ Compensation Laws A key aspect of the Fair Work Act (FWA) and the modern awards system involves the requirement to ‘provide a fair and relevant minimum safety net of terms and conditions’. The ACTU argued that inclusion of accident pay provisions into the relevant awards was consistent with, and necessary to achieve, this objective. The emphasis placed on the safety net objective in the FWA was particularly pertinent for low paid, award reliant, workers who are most likely to experience substantial financial disadvantage were this entitlement to be removed. The industrial relations tribunal examined the evidence for and against workers’ compensation step-downs for the first time and ruled to protect entitlements available to injured workers INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 18 Volume 23 Issue 1 2016 KEVIN PURSE is with Central Queensland University’s Appleton Institute in Adelaide, South Australia, and has an extensive background in Work Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation policy I n August 2015 a Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission, Australia’s national industrial relations tribunal, handed down a decisive judgement upholding the principle that accident make-up pay provisions should continue as an entitlement available to injured workers under 37 modern industrial awards. The unanimous Full Bench decision supported an application by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the country’s peak union organisation, despite vigorous opposition major employer groups along with the federal Liberal/National coalition government and its New South Wales counterpart. Accident make-up pay provisions have been an important component of many industry awards and enterprise agreements in Australia. They are designed to offset the financial hardship of ‘stepdowns ’ - phased cuts in income replacement payments for injured workers - contained in Australia’s predominantly state based workers’ compensation laws. Accident pay provisions operate on the principle that if a worker suffers a work related injury the employer is obliged to make up the difference between his or her pre-injury wages and income replacement payments paid by the workers’ compensation insurer. Typically, make-up pay provisions apply for periods ranging from 26 to 52 weeks, by which time the vast majority of injured workers have returned to work. Accident Pay and Modern Awards Accident...

Evaluating the organising model of trade unionism: An Australian perspective

AbstractTo mark the 20th anniversary of the Australian union movement’s Organising Works programme, this article introduces a symposium discussing potential ways forward for unions. It overviews research regarding the challenges of union organising and renewal, both in Australia and internationally. It provides a broad historical perspective on the origins and progress of the grassroots Organising Works agenda initiated by the peak union bodies, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Unions NSW. It explores how trade unions can best generate and sustain their spirit of mobilising and organising, while also ensuring the institutional legitimacy they require to effectively represent workers. Unions have had to manage the tension between two dynamics of trade union growth – the sense of movement involved in mobilising workers, and the institutional stability and legitimacy needed to represent workers. Unions have faced both the need to confront global capital restructuring through their own restructuring, and the need to renew and maintain a strong and democratic community base. To do so, they have built new networks and campaigning approaches, in order to organise an increasingly diverse and insecure workforce and build strong community links.

The Accord, the labour market and the economy

This article discusses the economic circumstances and effects of the Accord, noting always the difficulty of reaching firm conclusions because of counterfactual uncertainties. The article traces the interaction between the Accord and economic conditions, especially in the years 1983–1991. After the inflation of the early 1980s had abated somewhat, other economic changes, especially the devaluation of the Australian dollar, complicated the task of economic management. Stagnation of real wages made the task of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) in holding unions to the Accord more difficult. There was an inherent tension in the Accord during the years 1983–1991 in that it required the federal arbitration tribunal to ‘sign on’ to wage policies negotiated between the ACTU and the government. For several years the tribunal delivered outcomes that were sufficiently acceptable to the Accord partners; but by the late 1980s the tension increased and in 1991 the centralised wage-fixing system collapsed. The article discusses the forces on the union and the employer side which led to this result. The article tentatively concludes that the Accord did assist macro-economic management in the 1980s, first by helping to bring price and wage inflation under a measure of control and second by averting wage pressures which might otherwise have developed in the later years of the decade. It finds no evidence to support claims that the productivity effects of the Accord were beneficial.

The Prices and Incomes Accord: Its significance, impact and legacy

This thematic section of the Journal of Industrial Relations commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Prices and Incomes Accord between the Hawke–Keating government and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The Accord remains a landmark by the standards of Australian industrial relations history and given the international context in which it emerged. It achieved its initial objective of addressing the problem of ‘stagflation’ and helped to facilitate structural reform in the Australian economy. In gaining cooperation from unions and by providing a social wage to cushion workers from the adverse effects of economic and wages policy reform, the Accord represented a more equitable alternative to neoliberal approaches adopted elsewhere. However, negative unintended consequences of the Accord years remain features of the contemporary labour market, which casts some doubt on its legacy.

Unions and collective bargaining in Australia in 2012

In 2012, the big issues for unions were working hours, insecurity, supply chain intervention, collective rights, public sector employment and, of course, organisation and membership. Membership and density were fairly stable. Disputation rose but was well below the levels of the Workplace Relations Act era. Disputes became longer and retained their focus on bargaining under the Fair Work Act. Unions continued to attempt to widen sources of collective power that had been severely constricted during the Howard years. They developed new policies and a slightly broader range of tactics, and undertook some internal restructuring at the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The unions’ relationship with the federal government was relatively stable. In contrast, in state public sectors there was increasing unrest, with unions using a variety of tactics to counter attacks on job security and long-standing conditions. Unions also faced challenges from restructuring and redundancies in industries such as airlines and coal.