The Australian Unions (ACTU) TV ad campaign has apparently driven an upsurge in membership, it has also caused some discussion on facebook of the approrpiateness of the links between unions and the ALP:
Melissa Ohaeawai Wednesday That's great, however people will also continue to leave unions in droves as long as unions continue to support the ALPs clearly anti-worker agenda both financially and by a lack of public criticism of bad policy. If we really want a return of union power, we, as union members (for what else are unions if not their members?) need to fight for better laws and not support bad policy that hurts workers. I'm no fan of the Liberals, (disgust might be closer) but make no mistake: they and the ALP serve the same masters.
Shane Burke Good to see a positive..the unions collectively need to get stuck into the ALP,after all thats where they started.
Keryn Anderson Don't confuse the ALP with the ACTU. The ACTU haven't lost their values and will always remember who they are fighting for - workers and their families. Unfortunately most of the ALP have forgotten why they are there. Time to get rid of the dead wood I say. Bring on this election.
The pro-ALP links are mostly around the idea that Abbott would be a lot worse.
Interestingly, some internal union critics of the 2007 Your Rights at Work campaign argued that it did a good job of getting the ALP elected but not much to help re-build membership.
One senior national official of an affiliated union told me (thesis p258):
Well, the first failure of YR@W was that in all the conversations I had with Robbo[1] and with Greg Combet, Robbo was about him and Greg was just about the next election. I kept saying what happens if we lose and what happens if we win. It’s not just about getting Labor elected its about getting a stronger movement which actually entrenches Labor for the future. Their focus was definitely just the next election.
[1] John Robertson, Secretary of UnionsNSW during YR@W campaign and later ALP Opposition leader in NSW Parliament.
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