Teens split over union relevance
By PATRICK LAWNHAM and PENELOPE GREEN
The Australian 18may98
A special Newspoll survey shows few teenagers disapprove of the union movement, even though only a small minority of the under-25s are members of unions.
The survey, done for The Australian, backs the belief that the collapse in full-time employment for teenagers and young adults in the past two decades, and the spread of casual and service jobs, have impeded the union organiser's traditional task.
The Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training's director, Ron Callus, said past surveys also showed most young people were not anti-union.
"The problem is they don't have the opportunity to join, or are not in a strong unionised environment," he said.
"The disturbing bit for the unions is that the longer people are in a union, the more disenchanted they become.
"Hanging on to members is the challenge."
The Newspoll telephone survey of 600 people aged 13 to 19, in Sydney and Melbourne last week, shows almost one in two teenagers, 47 per cent, believe trade unions do a good job.
About one in five, 18 per cent, say unions do a poor job and 35 per cent are uncommitted.
The Newspoll survey indicates more of the older teenagers believe unions do a poor job - 23 per cent of 18- to 19-year-olds compared with 11 per cent of the youngest group. About 43 per cent of those aged 13 to 15 are uncommitted, compared with about 30 per cent of older teenagers.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for 1996 indicate the proportion of full- and part-time workers aged 15-19 who belonged to unions was about 18 per cent, down from 23 per cent in 1992, and 24 per cent among 20- to 24-year-olds, down from 32 per cent in 1992.
This compared with 38 per cent for 55- to 59-year-olds and 31 per cent overall - the latter down from 40 per cent in 1992. Only 13 per cent of casuals and 22 per cent of part-timers were union members in 1996.
Professor Callus's ACIRRT, based at Sydney University, has analysed previous Newspoll surveys of employed people's attitudes towards unions, done in 1996 and 1997 for the NSW Labor Council.
Young workers in the survey, aged 18-24, were "considerably more concerned with wages and conditions, whereas older people were concerned with job security", the ACIRRT analysis said.
Young workers were also much more likely to indicate preference for being in a union - about 60 per cent, compared with about 40 per cent for those aged at least 25.
ABS data shows young workers as a group have been taking real pay cuts during the 1990s, apparently because their employment has shifted to new, lower-pay occupations, particularly in services, from older sectors such as manufacturing.
ACTU president Jennie George said last year the unions had a multi-million-dollar recruitment fund and membership would rise again by 2000.
Many people aged between 19 and 26 contacted by The Australian yesterday thought that while unions might be relevant to some "blue-collar" workers, they did not fill a role in their own lives.