Diarios de campo

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) has in the past, espoused the same philosophies as the union movement. The ALP and the NTEU sharing ideals is not unsurprising, given that it was created as a political tool of the union movement and both have remained aligned along similar tenets until modern times. The alignment between unions and the ALP has been so for decades as evidenced in Ben Chifley’s 1949

memorable ‘Light on the Hill’ oration in which he speaks of making worker’s lives more comfortable with security of work and a hopeful future for their children (Chifley, 1949); a sentiment clearly held in common with unions. Interviewees’ comments showed the

interchangeability of ‘union’ for ‘political party’ because when they were asked about one they just as often answered about the other. Transitional markers (Ryan & Bernard, 2003) show the question about unions and the immediate transition by interviewees into answering about political parties indicates a theme worth noting and the strength of the theme was verified by cross-referencing with the more common theme-recognition technique of repetition. Several interviewees were asked about the union movement and their thoughts about the NTEU; they responded with information about various political parties. The interviewees’ linkages between the NTEU and the ALP are noteworthy and require further analysis.

In the following excerpt from the interviews the interviewee was asked if his parents were in unions. The response from QN, (male, non-member), initially relates to his employment and then unions, but quickly moves to a discussion about politics and he expresses his opinion:

My parents are self-employed. They run a small business. My dad is 67, my mum is 60. So, I mean, before that they'd, my mum had worked for several different factories, the Arnott’s factory; she never really talks much about the unions. My dad, again, neither strong Right-wing, nor strong Left- wing, sort of just fed up with politics in general and he remembers back to the Whitlam days when there was so many strikes all the time...it really destroyed his confidence in that kind of system.

Interviewer: Do you think that that influenced you?

QN: Ah, no, no, I don't think so, no, I have quite different political views from my parents. Both of them have very limited education; about grade six education from Greece. But their social background as well as, sort of, peasants from Greece from an era is also complicated by other political factors.

My dad's father was a partisan in the Greek communist party and he fought in the Greek civil war and died in the Greek civil war, about 1948. My dad didn't even know him. Because of that, even because of that association my dad was obviously harassed, spied on, whatever, even though he never knew who his father was. But in general my parents are ambivalent about politics. They don't trust either of the parties or any party.

Persecution because of political affiliation and other influences has had an enduring mark on this family with the interviewee’s parents now having no particular political leanings. Indeed they are described as untrusting of all politics. Even though he makes it clear that the family history and his parent’s views have not influenced him, he responds to a question about unions with an answer about politics.

a vote for The Australian Greens and stated the NTEU was not affiliated with any political parties nor did they financially donate to, or support any political parties. The main forum for the announcement was a page in The Advocate (NTEU publication) and other media messages to members, with non-members receiving no communication about the NTEU political stance. The target market’s limited communication access points makes the dissemination of messages such as the NTEU’s political position difficult to circulate.

Figure 8.1 Democratic union decision to advise members to vote The Australian Green’s Party

The final response from interviewees was offered by MD (male, member), in answer to what he (MD, male, member), knew about unions and his perception that there was a traditional affiliation with the ALP was offered as part of the answer.

That they’ve been in Australia for over a hundred years, or about a hundred years. That they’re traditionally linked with the Labor movement.

Clearly the long and close association between the ALP and unions has created a strong impression enduring many decades. Interviewees and particularly non-members did not find what they perceived as an affiliation between the NTEU and the ALP a suitable or desirable relationship. The NTEU for its part made mention in Figure 8.1 that

it held no affiliations with any political parties, but the communication is insufficient to address the current perception.

Given that the university sector employees are just as likely to vote Australian Greens, Coalition (Liberal and National Parties), Independents or ALP the no affiliation policy of the NTEU would better serve its brand image if it were more clearly

communicated to the university sector.

8.4 Chapter Summary

This chapter presented the findings for research questions five and six. It found that there was a noticeable lack of workplace presence by the NTEU, which in itself leads to a weakened brand image. The chapter also revealed that for the majority of Gen Y interviewees unions did not play an important role in their work life. They did not attribute important workplace conditions to the efforts of the NTEU and several

interviewees reported poor service experiences leading to further poor perceptions of the brand. Other interviewees believed the NTEU to be a good service provider and reported instances of receiving higher than expected service. Interviewees, both members and non-members reported on the positive role of the NTEU in providing staff with a ‘voice’ to management and providing an independent viewpoint about workplace issues. The final section provided a brief account of interviewees’ perceptions of unions’ affiliations with political movements.