The Accord, Compulsory Unionism and the Paradigm Shift in Australian Union Membership

With the defeat of the federal Labor Government and the consequent end of the Accord, it has almost become the received wisdom to attribute to the Accord the blame for the decline in union membership and union density during the 1980s and the 1990s. The decline in union density has arisen not from the Accord but form a "paradigm shift" in the determinants of union membership. This paradigm shift mostly reflects a change in strategies by employers and governments towards union membership.