The Organizing Model and the Management of Change: A Comparative Study of Unions in Australia and Britain

Trade unions in nearly all developed countries are facing major difficulties in maintaining membership levels and political influence. The US labor movement has been increasingly attracted to an organizing model of trade unionism and, in turn, this response has caught the imagination of some sections of other Anglo-Saxon movements, most notably in Australia, New Zealand and Britain. There is not single definitive account of what constitutes the organizing model but its advocates envisage the transformation of unions into dynamic organizations, where members would become active participants rather than passive consumers. Despite similarities in the problems that national union movements face, however, the histories and current experiences of trade unions in the various countries show marked differences. A comparative study of an Australian and a British union, based on extensive fieldwork in Britain and Australia, attempts to assess the importance of national contexts in the adoption of the organizing model.