Global Focus on Collective Bargaining Coverage: Interview with ITUC President Sharan Burrow: ‘You

Sharan Burrow is president of Australia's labor federation and also head of the International Trade Union Confederation, representing labor federations worldwide. Australian unions and workers celebrated a huge victory last year when the Labor Party ousted the anti-worker government of former Prime Minister John Howard.

CWA News:  Let's begin by asking you a little about the situation in Australia.  While collective bargaining coverage is at 50 percent, actual union membership has dropped drastically from 40 percent in 1988 to around 20 percent today. What happened in Australia in the past 20 years to bring this about?

Sharan Burrow:  The decline in union density is partly the result of changes in the job market which has seen less job growth in areas such as manufacturing and mining where unionization is high and greater jobs growth in service industries where unions have had weaker membership levels. Another major factor has been the anti-union policies of the past 11 years under a conservative government as well as the privatization of formerly publicly owned enterprises.

CWA News:   What would you say were the biggest lessons unions learned from this period of declining union density?

Sharan Burrow:  In the past five years union membership in Australia has been relatively stable. This is a good result considering we have had a national government that has been doing its best to make it hard for workers to join unions.  In this time we have focused on organizing in workplaces, understanding the needs of workers, better communications and more effective bargaining strategies.

CWA News:   We know that the  Australian labor movement led by you worked very hard during the last two and a half years to vote out the Howard government.  What can you tell us about your efforts?

Sharan Burrow:  The Australian union movement united like never before to help defeat the right-wing government's new anti-worker industrial relations laws.

Unions committed resources to a comprehensive communications strategy that involved advertising, PR, and grassroots campaigning in targeted electorates and with union members.  We highlighted case studies of workers who had been hurt by the government's industrial relations laws, and we focused on the effects of the laws on people — not on unions.

This was an election where working people fought back. They said they wouldn't accept an Australia where the government could tear up your rights, could see your job taken away from you with no reason and nowhere to go for redress, or your income stripped by up to a third of your entitlements because there were no rights.

CWA News:  Did other groups join labor in mobilizing to bring about change in the government?

Sharan Burrow:  There was a widespread desire for a change of government in Australia but the union campaign was by far the biggest and best organized. Polling conducted on the day of the election showed that the government's work laws were the single biggest reason that people changed their vote and that there was very strong support for the role unions played.

CWA News:  Would you say unions created a new political movement in Australia? And is it a long lasting movement?

Sharan Burrow: Australia's unions have always had a strong role to play in our nation's politics. But the way that we contributed to the recent election win by the Labor Party was totally different from what we have done before. We certainly intend to make sure that unions remain strong and politically active for the long term.

CWA News:  How has government changed as a result of the election?

Sharan Burrow:  The new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is committed to new laws that will protect workers' rights and restore fairness to our workplaces and a lot of the new government ministers come from a union background.

Individual contracts (AWAs) will be banned once new laws are passed early in 2008 and the rights of workers to collectively bargain as well as a range of other new protections will be fully introduced over the next few years.

CWA News:  The U.S. labor movement is in a similar situation to what you were in a couple of years ago. We have a very anti-worker president and are under 8 percent unionized in the private sector. We are working to change the government in this year's election so that we can address the major issues of workers (Employee Free Choice Act, health care, jobs and retirement security). Having gone through a very similar experience what advice would you give us?

Sharan Burrow:  Stay united, campaign hard and find the best way to communicate with the voters that are going to make a difference to the election outcome. Your quest for the Employee Free Choice Act is one that will shine a light of hope for workers, not just for America but for workers around the world.

Communicate the message that no nation can stand tall if their economy is built on the impoverishment of workers so that a few can get very wealthy. That is not a democracy that anyone can support. No politician deserves to get elected if they're not prepared to support the rights of working people and their families.

You have an opportunity this year. You are fighting for a democracy that matters, a democracy that is not just about yourselves but your children and grandchildren, a democracy that respects rights at work. That's the call for all American workers and their families.