Essential Service Unionism and the new Police Industrial Relations

We examined how an Australian police union boasting more than 99 percent density has resisted the trend of decline. The union historically eschewed arbitration and instead used political connections to achieve goals. The environment radically changed with a major corruption report and the introduction of new managerialist techniques. The union reconfigured relationships with management and government but still made use of political action to secure instrumental gains. It has structures and practices that promote perceptions of responsiveness. The union’s support base is built on the foundation of a well-administered legal defense fund. Membership propensity is also a function of the union’s general protective functions, its ability to secure benefits, and a perception of union democracy. The implications for understanding essential-service unionism relate to the political sensitivity of essential services, the nature of risk facing essential-service employees, cultural aspects of essential-service work, as well as some implications common to all unions. Trade unions in many countries have faced problems of declining membership density. The problem has been particularly acute in Australia, where several factors—structural change in the labor market, changing strategies of governments and employers, and weak union organization at the workplace level—have 283 2005, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc. combined to drive density down by nearly half in two decades [1]. In the public sector the increasing focus on human resource management principles in the governance of work organization, the application of private sector managerialist practices, and changes to legislation governing employment relations have substantially changed the way in which unions and management have interacted [2]. For many unions and in varying degrees, these changes have severely weakened their ability to recruit and maintain a strong organizational base. In some cases unions have adopted workplace-focused organizing approaches to reverse sharp declines in membership or obtain membership growth in areas that have had low density [e.g. 3, 4]. Some other unions—most notably covering certain essential service employees in the public sector—largely avoided the membership crisis. In Queensland, for example, unions covering police, nurses, ambulance officers, and firefighters consistently maintain over 95 percent density and are recording membership growth. This article is concerned primarily with police union membership. Its findings suggest that while there are specific factors that contribute to our understanding of how a police union in Australia manages to retain a strong membership base, the conclusions offered by this article provide a base for further comparative research into essential-service unionism in Australia and elsewhere. The Queensland Police Union of Employees (QPUE) has a density of over 99 percent among police employees. Many other Australian unions have in the past achieved complete union coverage through union security devices such as union preference clauses in awards or agreements and closed shops. Such arrangements are now almost universally illegal and so the proportion of employees covered by compulsory unionism in one form or another has fallen from 34 percent in 1976 [1] to less than 5 percent in 1998 [1]. Yet while other unions previously reliant on compulsion have seen their membership fall—in some cases, plummet—many essential service unions in Australia retain high density without any form of compulsion. This article investigates an Australian police union boasting almost complete coverage and a strong tradition of union activity. It is in three sections. First, the article provides a context within which the union under investigation resists the trend to declining membership. Second, we analyze the relationship between the 284 / FLEMING AND PEETZ 1 Interview with Queensland Police Union of Employees (QPUE) official, 3 September, 1999. At the time of writing, all police unions/associations in Australia with the exception of the Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA) enjoy similar levels of membership. The AFPA has about a 75 percent membership level. In 1997, the Police Federation of Australia was formed. The organization that brings together Australia’s state unions/associations represents 50,000 police officers. 2 Australia’s policing system has one federal, six state and two territory jurisdictions. All jurisdictions have strong police union organizations. union’s universal coverage and union strategy, particularly in the context of the “new managerialism” in police organizations. This section also considers the impact of strong union coverage on a police management committed to the implementation of new managerialism and the new paradigm for bargaining in the public sector. The third section of the article considers union propensity and analyzes the way in which the union is seen as relating to its members. We conclude that this particular union’s support base is built on the foundation of a well-administered legal defense fund. However, this factor alone does not account for the union’s strong levels of membership. This is also determined by the union’s general protective functions, its ability to secure monetary and other benefits, and a perception by members that they have a say in how the union operates.