Power to the people: How stronger unions can deliver economic justice

Article

Achieving better wages and working conditions as part of a new growth model will require a renaissance of collective bargaining and a growth in trade union membership.

The decline of the union movement has contributed to a growing imbalance of power in the economy, and a consequent decline in the share of national income going to labour and an increase in inequality.

The state should not be agnostic about the decline of the union movement; public policy should seek to support a renaissance in collective bargaining at sector and firm level, and to reverse the decline in union membership. Trade unions should become social partners in industrial strategy and in managing automation to build a more productive economy that works for all.

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