Unions and collective bargaining in Australia in 2019

Early in 2019, in anticipation of a change in Federal government, the fate of unions and collective bargaining in Australia appeared likely to take a new direction. However, the re-election in May of the Morrison-led Coalition government changed all this. This article reviews the year in three main sections, focusing respectively on unions and union strategy; collective bargaining and collective agreements; and public policy, unions and collective bargaining. Despite some interesting twists, the overall themes are more of the same - the continuation of political partisanship towards unions and collective bargaining, and the reinforcement of adversarialism in the workplace.