FED: Drop in union membership a result of Work Choices: Combet

AAP General News (Australia)
04-03-2007
FED: Drop in union membership a result of Work Choices: Combet

The ACTU says a drop in the number of Australians who are union members .. is a direct
result of the federal government's industrial relations reforms.

Today's figures from the Bureau of Statistics show a 6.6 per cent drop in union members
.. from August 2005 to August 2006 .. down from 1.9 million members to 1.8 million.

ACTU president GREG COMBET says he's disappointed .. but not surprised .. by the drop.

Mr COMBET says one of the objectives of Work Choices is to try to make it impossible
for people to exercise the democratic right to be a union member.







The fall in membership numbers comes despite a Newspoll showing 51 per cent of voters
believe the IR changes are bad for the economy .. while 48 per cent believe they're also
bad for creating jobs.

AAP RTV nr/wjf/tm/bart

KEYWORD: UNIONS COMBET (SYDNEY)

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