Workers abandon unions
Almost 100,000 Australians, including thousands of workers in WA, quit trade unions in the year to August.
UnionsWA rejected claims the movement was in crisis after new Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed 93,000 fewer people belonged to a union in Australia in August last year compared with a year previously.
Nationally, 1,747,600 people held union memberships in August last year, including 160,600 members in WA.
This represented a fall of 3500 locals in the previous 12 months and 15,000 in three years.
WA has the country's lowest union density at 13.7 per cent, with the national average at 17 per cent.
UnionsWA president Meredith Hammat conceded the slide was a concern, but blamed it largely on issues beyond union control.
These included the high turnover of jobs, largely through the rise in temporary contracts, which is widely seen to discourage union membership.
Sectors such as manufacturing had fallen away in recent years, gutting unions of their traditional heartland. But she said the role played by unions was still crucial, including minimum wage cases and safety, helping it to remain "one of the largest social movements in Australia".
The Master Builders Association said unions were losing traction partly because they were struggling to remain relevant.
"Unions are struggling to remain relevant in a knowledge-based society . . . which appreciates unions are stifling employment with many old battles that belong in the last century," spokesman Kim Richardson said.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the figures backed calls for legal changes to reduce the compulsory role of unions in the workplace.
Industrial relations commentator Jack Gregor said historical factors were partly to blame for WA's low union density. Individual contracts were used here long before the rest of the country.
Mr Gregor said it was hard for unions to highlight their valuable social welfare initiatives because the media focused on controversial industrial matters.
He said enlightened employers were also reducing the need for third-party intervention, such as unions, partly by resolving problems through human resources policies.
