Thursday, October 20, 2005
[IWS] New Zealand: UNIONS go from STRENGTH to STRENGTH [17 October 2005]
IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
Human Resources Institute of New Zealand
17 October 2005
Unions go from strength to strength
http://www.hrinz.org.nz/SITE_Default/SITE_HR_Info/SITE_Hot_Stuff/x-files/14052.doc
A Victoria University survey has found that union membership in New Zealand in 2004 increased by 12,427 over the previous year. This builds on five years of strong growth with an overall 17% rise in union membership since 1999.
The survey of trade union membership by the Industrial Relations Centre at Victoria University found 354,058 union members at December 31, 2004.
Centre Director, Professor George Lafferty, attributes the rise in union membership to a number of variables.
"Unions are achieving a high profile with campaigns such as New Zealand's Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union's '5 in 05' push. Such campaigns have helped create an environment in which employees feel more inclined to join unions," he says.
"In addition, unions have been organising better and making themselves more attractive in the workplace. The highly successful Fair Pay campaign by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation is an excellent example of this."
The bulk of the increase in union membership continues to be in established unions affiliated with the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU). Membership of CTU-affiliated unions has risen by 13,000.
Strong labour force growth and high levels of natural attrition continue to present a challenge to unions, which need to be continually recruiting just to stand still. As a mark of their success, union density - now 21.1 percent, has hovered between 21 and 22 percent since 1998.
The Industrial Relations Centre will be publishing the data in its Unions & Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual Review for 2004 working paper.
For further information please contact Professor George Lafferty 04-463-6923 (work) 06-308-8167 (ah).
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky *
Director, IWS News Bureau *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor *
New York, NY 10016 *
*
Telephone: (607) 255-2703 *
Fax: (607) 255-9641 *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu *
****************************************
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies
School of Industrial & Labor Relations
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10016
________________________________________________________________________
Human Resources Institute of New Zealand
17 October 2005
Unions go from strength to strength
http://www.hrinz.org.nz/SITE_Default/SITE_HR_Info/SITE_Hot_Stuff/x-files/14052.doc
A Victoria University survey has found that union membership in New Zealand in 2004 increased by 12,427 over the previous year. This builds on five years of strong growth with an overall 17% rise in union membership since 1999.
The survey of trade union membership by the Industrial Relations Centre at Victoria University found 354,058 union members at December 31, 2004.
Centre Director, Professor George Lafferty, attributes the rise in union membership to a number of variables.
"Unions are achieving a high profile with campaigns such as New Zealand's Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union's '5 in 05' push. Such campaigns have helped create an environment in which employees feel more inclined to join unions," he says.
"In addition, unions have been organising better and making themselves more attractive in the workplace. The highly successful Fair Pay campaign by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation is an excellent example of this."
The bulk of the increase in union membership continues to be in established unions affiliated with the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU). Membership of CTU-affiliated unions has risen by 13,000.
Strong labour force growth and high levels of natural attrition continue to present a challenge to unions, which need to be continually recruiting just to stand still. As a mark of their success, union density - now 21.1 percent, has hovered between 21 and 22 percent since 1998.
The Industrial Relations Centre will be publishing the data in its Unions & Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual Review for 2004 working paper.
For further information please contact Professor George Lafferty 04-463-6923 (work) 06-308-8167 (ah).
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
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# posted by SBasefsky : 8:10 AM
