title: Union Influence on the Activism of Workplace Delegates: A Tale of Two Surveys
Creators: name: Alexander, Michael John
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: workplace delegates
subject: unions
subject: union influence
subject: industrial relations
subject: delegate activism
subject: workplace delegate activism

description: This thesis sets out to articulate the manner in which unions influence the activism of workplace delegates. It does so by identifying, through an examination of previous literature, those factors that are known to have some influence over the activities or behaviours of delegates and over which unions also have some control. The thesis is grounded in the current debate over union renewal, and the capacity for organised labour to reverse its current decline through the implementation of the ‘organising’ approach. The organising approach stemmed initially from unions in the United States in the late 1980s, but is based on union behaviours that operated in earlier periods when the institutional framework around the employment relationship was much less regulated; in the Australian context, the period leading up to the depression and the great strikes of the 1890s and then again for the first few decades of the twentieth century. The organising model essentially encourages the activation of members at the workplace by getting them to take responsibility for identifying and then solving the issues that are of concern to them. It does so in a way that first develops and the draws upon the strength of collective action by developing a sense of collective identity, motivation, and commitment amongst the members. The thesis argues that active workplace delegates are a key component of this union strategy. The thesis draws upon two large, representative databases of Australian workplace delegates collected almost a decade apart. The first is the 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, commissioned by the Australian Government to provide a comprehensive and statistically reliable database on Australian workplace industrial relations. The second utilises a survey of workplace delegates from eight Australian unions that was part of a larger ARC funded project examining the changing nature of employee voice and representation in Australia, and explicitly, the transformation strategies that many Australian unions had been implementing at the workplace level around the idea an organising approach to workplace unionism. This survey was conducted in late 2003!early 2004. Using bivariate (cross-tabulations and correlations) and multivariate (ordinary least squares and logistic regressions) techniques, the thesis explores the associations between an array of factors and a number of measures of delegate activism that were contained within these two data sources. The factors examined for their association with delegate activism include: the nature and frequency of contact between the delegate and the union; the types and effectiveness of supports provided by unions to delegates; the tenure, training experience and confidence of delegates; the nature of union democracy and membership engagement; and the features of the workplace industrial relations environment. The research essentially attempts to lift the veil on some of the more practical aspects of developing delegate activism. In summary, the research finds that the day-to-day workplace level interactions between delegates and their union, the resources that unions and delegates bring to the relationship, and the constraints that delegates may face, were all found to influence the activism of workplace delegates. The activism of workplace delegates was found to be significantly greater: the more frequent the contact with union organisers; the more effective were the supports provided to delegates; the more training and the greater confidence the delegate had; the more engaged were the workplace members and the more democratic were the union’s processes perceived to be. The activism of workplace delegates was also found to be lower where there was uncertainty about the role of the delegate and where delegates assessed management as trustworthy, competent and positive towards employees. Finally, delegate activism was higher where the union was seen to be taking a progressive approach to gender issues and where there was employer hostility toward the activities of delegates. The thesis concludes by considering the connection between the determinants of delegate activism and the principles underlying the organising approach.