The union movement will push a Labor government to ensure that workers can take industry-wide strike action as part of a promised revamp of bargaining laws.

Labor has promised to take a policy to allow bargaining in certain sector across a number of employers – a practise known as pattern bargaining – to the next election but has declined to spell out if it will allow strikes as part of that reform.

Sally McManus, Secretary of the Australian Council Trade Unions (ACTU). Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) national secretary Sally McManus said on Friday that any such policy would need to include the ability for workers to take strike action in support of their demands.

Employers have warned that the move could see a return to the industrial strife seen in the last century when whole industries were wracked by strikes but Ms McManus said the move was needed to reflect changes in the economy which had made single enterprise bargaining much less effective.