I always thought people had the right to join any union and multiple unions if they wished these days?
Sort of. All unions have membership criteria, usually occupation based. For example, if you were a plumber you couldn't join a public sector union; although if you were a government employed plumber with something like Q Build you would probably have the choice of both.
It's reasonably common for particular workers to have a choice between several unions, and in civilised workplaces the SOP is for all relevant unions to send reps to visit new employees, each put their case forward and let the employees choose which (if any) union they want to join. Of course the Big Q is not very civilised at the moment.
It's also common for unions to agree between themselves about coverage of particular occupations. The optimistic view is that it's because one union can better represent that occupation, and the cynic's view is that it's because back in the day both organizations got together and carved up the territory.
As always, the truth probably hides somewhere in the middle.
We live in a society dominated by products and consumerism. Even religion is now commoditized, as shown by the rise of new style happy clapping churches that market themselves heavily. They're attracting a lot of members, money and publicity, which is affecting the numbers of people joining traditional Christian religions. The traditionalists hate it and say it's superficial and commercial, but guess where the Gen Yers are flocking...
IMO it's the same with unions. Like it or not, unions provide a product. If they spent more time developing an awesome product people wanted then they'd attract members, particularly younger ones. Of course a number of unions are already doing this and their membership numbers reflect that. The ol' heavies may grumble, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, and whether they like it not, wrapping your membership form around a lump of 4x2 went out along with safari suits and XXXX Draught (yep, they're out, fellahs; and they're not coming back
).
From the outside looking in, the ALAEA provides a good product, and that's why people want to join. It's light on the faceless men, alleged rorts and Heavies and big on genuine union organizers from the trade and representing its members. IMO that's the only way forward for the union movement if it wants to survive. Real people are getting sick of the 'union as political force' thing and just want someone to bat for them at the EBA shakedown.
IMO it would be more sensible to concentrate on the product and avoid public punch ups in the papers. All that does is turn even more people off the union movement completely, because it smacks of ALP politics, back room deals and self interest. These are not attractive products (particularly to anyone under thirty) and illustrate a dinosaur mentality. Remember what happened to the dinosaurs...
