Is it really worth joining the union?

Question

Our workplace is going through a protracted enterprise bargaining process. I’m increasingly concerned about the proposals I can see our employer is making. Should I join the union?

Answer

I asked Associate Professor Stephen Clibborn, the co-director of the Sydney Employment Relations Research Group at the University of Sydney, to offer his expertise on your question. His response was so thorough, thoughtful and (I think) helpful, I’m passing it on in full:

“In general, union-negotiated collective agreements deliver higher pay and conditions for employees. With the exception of those with rare and in-demand skills, an individual employee is less able to negotiate successfully with employers due to their relative power imbalance. The higher the proportion of employees in a given workplace who are union members, the more power they have and the more effectively they can negotiate to improve pay and conditions.

“Union members pay membership fees to be in the union and make sacrifices, such as forgoing pay while participating in strikes, to advance bargaining in ways that influence employers to agree to more favourable terms of employment.

“However, the higher pay and conditions in a collective agreement benefit both union members and non-union employees also covered by the agreement. So some employees might ask, ‘Why pay the union dues and sacrifice pay during industrial action if I’m going to get the same result?’ Such an approach might seem logical but it is a narrow, short-term and risky approach.

“The problem with this approach is that the same result is not guaranteed if too many employees sit back and let their colleagues do the work of bargaining for them. The smaller the group of workers negotiating with management, the smaller their power relative to the employer.