A Portrait of Australian Trade Union Officials
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8543.00213 |
| Author | Tom Bramble |
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
A Portrait of AustralianTrade Union
Officials
Tom Bramble
Abstract
Details are given of the chief characteristics of Australia’s trade union
officials, using data drawn from the 1986 and 1996 Australian Censuses of
Population and Housing. This research note provides an update on research
published by a number of authors. Unlike previous work, however, use of
Census data allows for direct comparisons of the characteristics of union
officials with those of union members or, where such data are not available,
with the employed work-force.
1. Introduction
This research note gives details of the chief characteristics of Australia’s
trade union officials, using data drawn from the 1986 and 1996 Australian
Censuses of Population and Housing (the former being the first year in
which union officials were identified as a separate category).
1
In doing so, it
provides an update on the research published on this topic by Davis (1978),
Dufty (1980), Cupper (1983), Plowman and Spooner (1983), Callus (1986),
and Bramble (1995). Unlike most of the above, however, use of Census data
allows for direct comparisons of the characteristics of union officials
with those of union members or, where such data are not available, with the
employed workforce.
2
2. Number and ‘density’ of union staff and full-time officials
Prior to the 1970s, the ratio of officials to members in most Australian
unions was very low. Most unions operated out of trades hall buildings, and
were equipped with only basic office assistance: a secretary/typist-cum-
telephonist and perhaps only a part-time branch or national secretary. In the
Tom Bramble is in the School of Management at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.
British Journal of Industrial Relations
39:4 December 2001 0007–1080 pp. 529–537
#Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 2001. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd,
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