Craft or Occupation Unions
An occupation based union or craft based union is one where the union forms around workers doing similar tasks. So printers in lots of different places of employment form a printers union or carpenters formed a carpenters union. The organising strength of these unions was based around craft skills which were scarce giving a union good bargaining power. The first union to gain an eight hour day in Australia was the Operative Stonemasons, a craft based union.
These structures have faded in recent decades but the basic structure of Australian unions developed around this form of unionism. The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) is a current example which still more or less fits this description, although they too have become part of an amalagamated union. The ETU is part of the Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union (CEPU), but still maintains a fairly separate role at the state level.
Industrial Unions
Industrial unions are now more the norm in Australia where the aim is to organise workers in an entire industry without regard to occupational difference. Industrial unions were based around factory workers and emerged as the era of mass production really accelerated after WWII. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), in its various forms has been the major example of this kind of union.
General unions
Genral Unions are the other broad category with the organising pattern based purely on pragmatism not occupation or industry. The Australian Workers Union and the Miscellaneous Workers Union in Australia are the major example here. They often have concentrations of members in particular occupations, this structure often developing beacuse of the interests and enthusiasms of early organisers. So the AWU really began with tremendous efforts at organising rural workers in Australia in the latter part of the nineteenth century. It still has a strong rural role. The Miscellaneous Workers have a strong role in cleaning, security and hospitality.
The distinctions between these types has blurred considerably with amalgamations.
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