Unions must ‘ask ourselves some tough questions’: Dave Oliver

The royal commission has damaged public perceptions of the labour movement, ACTU head Dave Oliver warns.

The trade union royal commission has damaged public perceptions of the labour movement, ACTU head Dave Oliver has warned, amid a rallying cry for “radical” solutions to boost membership.

Mr Oliver conceded yesterday that membership was “too low and must be increased” and unions had to be “asking ourselves some tough questions”. “We have to devise ways of adapting to the changing conditions, using them to our advantage and building a new sense of purpose and brand to go with it,” he told a union conference.

“Here is a moment for us to start devising the strategy that will allow us to grow our numbers and our social, economic and political influence in the years ahead.”

Critics accused Mr Oliver and ACTU president Ged Kearney of being in denial over the dire state of the movement after statistics last month showed membership had declined to 1.6 million members.

The figures published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last month showed public sector unions lost 181,000 members in the past two years.

Mr Oliver disputed the data, claiming the ACTU’s membership total was 1.8 million members.

“Let’s be honest: we may not be dropping members as fast as those (ABS) figures suggest, but we are flatlining”, he said yesterday.

Another challenge was that “the trade union royal commission has achieved much of its intended purpose of damaging our brand”.

However Mr Oliver stressed that unions remained relevant, pointing out that “collective agreements negotiated by unions cover some 40 per cent of the Australian workforce”.

“We will be part of the future,” he said. “But we can’t take this for granted, now more than ever is the time for some radical thinking and ideas.”

The royal commission into trade union governance and corruption, called by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, said this week it was winding down its public hearing schedule.

This week it completed its last scheduled hearing block — a four day inquiry into the National Union of Workers which uncovered fraud and embezzlement in the NSW Branch and led to the resignation of former leader Derrick Belan after 14 years.

The Commission has not ruled out a brief return to public hearings to finalise any outstanding matters, but said it will “now be focusing its efforts on completing the submissions process before the Commissioner delivers his final report to the Governor-general by 31 December.”