In December 2024, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released data showing union membership in Australia is up by a considerable margin. In the past two years union membership has grown by more than 200,000, taking the number of workers in the trade union movement to 1.6 million, or 13 per cent of the Australian workforce.
In December 2024, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released data showing union membership in Australia is up by a considerable margin.
In the past two years union membership has grown by more than 200,000, taking the number of workers in the trade union movement to 1.6 million, or 13 per cent of the Australian workforce.
This is an encouraging sign, and a relief to the trend which was showing the opposite three years ago when union membership was at an all-time low.
It appeared then, in 2022, that young people joining the workforce were not joining their unions. And although union membership is still stronger with older workers, young people are joining, with 7.3 per cent of workers aged 20 to 24 having joined their respective union.
“These changes happened because people see unions fighting for them,” said Stewart Little, General Secretary of the PSA. “You don’t see MPs out there in workplaces and at stop work meetings. You don’t see ministers out there signing up members.
“It’s our delegates, our organisers doing that. And it’s our industrial officers fighting for workers in the Industrial Relations Commission and Fair Work Commission.
“Unions winning on behalf of members is why membership is up.”
The Public Service Association of NSW and Community and Public Sector Union (SPSF Group) NSW Branch acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands where we work and the places in which we live. We pay respect to Ancestors and Elders, past, present and future. We recognise the unique cultural and spiritual relationship and celebrate the contributions of first nations peoples to Australia.
Leave a Comment
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *