
Issue No 119		16 November 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Unions

Sixty-Forty Are Good Odds!

John Robertson argues that while there may be many problems with the ALP, union power is not one of them.


	John Robertson

Leader-designate Simon Crean has been drawn into a debate on the future of the relationship between the ALP and the union movement in light of calls from some sections of the Party to diminish union influence.

In this debate a few points should be made:

� Unions are more popular than the ALP. Labor Council has commissioned polling over the last 5 years, which consistently shows 60 per cent of people support unions.

� Unions are having to reform to survive and are undergoing fundamental shifts in the way they represent their members.

� During the election campaign, unions carried many of the ALP campaigns

Those who seek to diminish the role of the unions may not like these messages but they ignore them at their peril.

Perhaps it is time to debate the role unions should play in the ALP - but it is a debate that should explore the full relationship, not a grab for power by the apparatchiks.

In this time of scientific poll-driven politics I'll give the ALP a bit of free advice: you already have a focus group of some two million Australians who can really tell you what is going on out there in the real world.

Union values and priorities are driven by the mass of voters who the ALP should be trying to woo.

They are not just blue-collar workers they are also white-collar professionals and service workers, what the pollsters call the swinging voter demographic.

Yet some in the ALP want to pussyfoot around relations with the unions as if we were an embarrassing relative.

We are related: The unions set up the ALP to represent working people.

If those same people in the Party don't like our values they are welcome to go and set up their own party. Just don't call it Labor - it will give us all a bad name.

The constructive alternative is for the ALP to view the institutionalized links with working people as a critical advantage over its political opponents.

Modern union officials have a complex skills set:

� On the ground campaigning

� Dealing with complex technological change issues

� and managing significant service-based businesses

which makes them a good sounding board for the Party.

Those with fears of union ties are misguided. What they should fear is a lack of union ties. Without unions what is the Party but another populist organization using modern polling techniques to tell the people what they want to hear?

It may win power from time to time: but for what purpose??

Ben Chifley had the balance right in his light on the hill speech when he said the ALP "must fight for what it believes is right, whether it brings electoral success or not".

Unions are reinventing themselves to meet the needs of modern workers and political parties too need to reinvent themselves to meet the needs of a disengaged electorate.

The unions are going through the change process first, the ALP will ignore our lessons at its own peril.

The time has come for us to redefine the ties between industrial and political Labor but this is not simply to reduce the role of unions.

The links with unions are a virtue, not a burden.

Let's not ignore our history - or we will face a future without focus or meaning.

John Robertson is the secretary of the NSW Labor Council

View entire issue - print all of the articles!

Issue 119 contents

Interview: Out of the Rubble
Michael Costa argues that Saturday's election result could have been much, much worse.

Unions: Sixty-Forty Are Good Odds!
John Robertson argues that while there may be many problems with the ALP, union power is not one of them.

Politics: Wrong Way, Go Back
Labor's failure in the federal election is the result of more than bad luck. It is the result of a shift to populism that has left the Party bereft of core principles.

Campaign Diary: Week Five: All Washed Up
If you can stand it, relive the fatefull final week of a most remarkable election campaign.

International: Trade Piracy Unmasked
As the trade barons met in Qatar to chart out their agenda, George Monbiot looks at the machinations behind the scenes.

Factions: The Party's Over
Chris Christodoulou renews his call for a breakdown of the factional system to bring new life into the ALP

History: The Fall-Out
Neale Towart looks back to Labor's reaction to its loss in the 1954 'Petrov election' and finds warnings for today's post mortem.

Media: Elite Defeat
Rowan Cahill looks at the intellectual paucity in the PM's ongoing attacks on 'elite opinion'.

Satire: Crean 'Listens To Australian People': Will Sink Refugee Boats
Simon Crean, the most likely candidate to replace Kim Beazley as Labor's leader, says he will take heed of the message sent to the ALP by Australian voters at the Federal Election.

» Unions Call for Border Review

» Compo Fire Reignites as Bill Hits Deck

» Workers Unite Over Corporate Power

» Day Three: Telstra Privatisation Begins

» Primus Deal Marks New Era in Telcos

» Qantas Staff Cuts Condemned

» Bank Workers Seek Proxies for AGMs

» Blokes Stand Up For The Ladies

» Landmark Community Services Win

» Anger at Sartor's Power Grab

» Consumer Boycott Call for Sugar Co-op

» Apprentices Win Parity with Uni Students

» Competition for Nurses Hots Up

» CFMEU Launches Bunny Club

» ICFTU Reveals 250 Companies in Burma

» Activists Notebook

» STOP PRESS: No Democracy at Telstra AGM