The labor movement in Australia appears at the beginning of the 19th century and includes both trade unions and political activity. The movement includes both the industrial wing, labor unions in Australia, and the political wing, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and small parties.
Almost all unions in Australia are affiliated with the Australian Trade Union Council (ACTU). These unions are typically the product of important merger processes conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
History
Trade unions in Australia began to emerge at the beginning of the 19th century, as associations of highly skilled urban workers who sought to unite demanded an increase in their wages and a shorter working day.
On April 21, 1856, masons and construction workers at construction sites throughout Melbourne stopped working and walked from the University of Melbourne to the Parliament building to achieve an eight-hour work day. Their direct protest was a success, and it was one of the first organized workers rallies in the world to achieve an 8-hour work day without losing wages.
In the 1890s, three major strikes shocked Australia: in 1890, a strike by sailors; in 1891 a strike of shearing sheep; in 1892, the Broken Hill miners 'strike, as well as the strikers' strike in 1894 . When a large number of shears in Queensland went on strike against poor conditions and lower wages, the Queensland police responded violently and broke up the strike. Each of these industrial conflicts demoralized the labor movement. William Lane and many others, seeking shelter, went to Paraguay to build a new settlement called New Australia. Other members of the labor movement, disappointed with the results of direct action, turned to a political decision and began to look for opportunities using suffrage, which led to the formation of the Australian Labor Party .
The first Labor candidates appeared at the end of the 19th century. The first Labor government in the world in 1899 was headed by Anderson Dawson, and the first national Labor government in the world was headed by Chris Watson . Then the first national government majority in the world, the first national government in Australia, and the first Senate majority in Australia in 1910 were headed by Andrew Fisher . His government carried out a series of reforms in the defense, constitutional, finance, transport and communications, social welfare sectors: introducing an old-age pension and disability, helping mothers, compensating employees, issuing first banknotes, creating a Navy , starting construction of the Trans-Australian Railway, expanding the composition of the Supreme courts of Australia , the founding of Canberra , the creation of the state Commonwealth Bank .
The main supporters of industrial unions in Australia on the eve of World War I were the Industrial Workers of the World (IRS). The IRS also spoke out on the political plane against conscription . The Australian labor movement rallied around the opposition against conscription. On September 23, 1916, twelve members of the IRS (most of them active organizers) were arrested and charged with high treason under the Criminal Penalties Act for High Treason (1848).
In October 1920, the Australian Communist Party was created, which included radical trade union groups, including John Garden, members of the banned IRS, and members of previous socialist organizations in Australia.
Strikes during this period were commonplace. Of particular note is the 1923 Victoria Police Strike.
Following the passage of the Transport Workers Act (better known as the Collar Act) in 1928 , the Australian trade union movement attempted to defend itself by forming the Australian Trade Union Council.
The strike of sawmill workers in 1929 was the first major strike after the outbreak of the Great Depression, when Judge Lukin decided to allow a new wage system in the forest industry, with an increase in the working week from 44 to 48 hours and a decrease in wages.
In response to the repression, the remnants of the IRS created a union of the unemployed. This idea was quickly picked up by the CPA and ALU , which created associations (not organized, unlike workers' unions) for the unemployed.
The Second World War aroused a considerable sense of sympathy for the Soviet Union among Australian workers, and the CPA tried to take advantage of this by organizing a strike in Queensland after the war in Queensland and in 1949 a strike by Australian coal miners. This attempt to seize control of the trade union movement failed, which marked the beginning of the decline of communist leadership and influence in the labor movement.
The years after the war were characterized by the support of the Australian workers by the movement of indigenous Australians in their struggle for human rights, cultural rights by supporting the Pilbar strike in 1946 .
In the late 1980s, microeconomic reforms began to be introduced in Australia, including deregulation of a number of previously regulated markets, including the labor market. These reforms were launched by the Keating government in 1991. Almost a century of centralized approval of wages in industrial relations has ended.
Following the 1996 election and the coming to power of the Federal Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister John Howard , industrial relations reforms were launched to reduce the influence of Australian unions. These included the introduction of the so-called Australian workplace agreement system — individual contractual arrangements for remuneration and working conditions between the employee and the employer — and lower minimum wages.
After the Howard liberal government won the 2004 election , and also won a majority in the Senate on July 1, 2005, changes in industrial law continued to further undermine the power of trade unions in collective bargaining . In May 2005, the Howard government announced changes to an industrial relationship known as WorkChoices. This law has been widely criticized by the Australian trade union movement, many religious and social groups and, importantly (but not widely covered), by the International Labor Organization , of which Australia is a member.
On June 30, 2005, up to 100 thousand people marched through Melbourne in opposition to the proposed changes in industrial relations, rallies also took place in metropolitan cities and major cities throughout Australia.
Following the defeat of Howard's liberal government in the 2007 federal election, the Labor government, among other changes, canceled Australian workplace agreements (ATS).
Literature
- Mutual Aid or Welfare State. Australia's Friendly Societies , David Green & Lawrence Cromwell (1984) ISBN 0-86861-664-8
- Industrial War. The Great Strikes 1890-94 , Stuart Svenson (1995) ISBN 0-646-22797-1
- Sydney's Burning (An Australian Political Conspiracy) , Ian Turner (1969)
- A Documentary History of the Australian Labor Movement 1850-1975 , Brian McKinley, (1979) ISBN 0-909081-29-8
- Strikes. Studies in Twentieth Century Australian Social History , Ed by John Iremonger, Merritt, Osborne. Angus and Robertson in association with ASSLH (1973) ISBN 0-207-12698-4
- My Union Right or Wrong. A history of the Ship Painters and Dockers Union 1900-1932 , Issy Wyner (2003). Accessed 1 May 2005
- David Peetz, Unions in a Contrary World: The Future of the Australian Trade Union Movement , 052163055X, 9780521630559, 9780521639507 Cambridge University Press 1998