ABSTRACT

Over the last 15 years, capital has become more mobile and competition has intensified. Governments have reduced their size and role in regulating the economy. For workers, the result has been job loss, declining real wages, and a change in the nature of work and those who are employed. Organized labour has been displaced from the privileged economic and policy position accorded to it by Keynesian economic management. For unions, the consequences of this economic and societal restructuring have been declining memberships and resources. In Australia, union density has dropped from 51 percent in 1976 to 35 percent in 1994 (ABS Cat. No.6325). While union density in Canada has remained quite steady, ranging from 37 to 39 percent of the non-agricultural workforce between 1976 and 1994, wide fluctuations in union membership can be seen across economic sectors and between individual unions. For example, union density in the mining sector dropped from approximately 51 percent in 1968 to 29 percent in 1992 (CALURA, Catalogue 71-202).