The much dissected ABS report last week which put union membership at 14.4% of workers nationally tells many stories, but they don’t all inevitably end with a movement bereft of influence or significance. By looking beyond a single headline figure, it’s possible to see a movement that still plays a role of central importance in contemporary Australian life.

A recent paper from the UN’s International Labor Office (ILO) entitled, Labour relations and collective bargaining, highlights not only the relative strengths of Australia’s labour market position, but again demonstrates our ingrained reliance on collective employment outcomes.

The ILO found that while union membership density is hovering around 15% of workers, more than 60% of Australian workers are employed under conditions that were collectively bargained for.

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While we lag behind contemporaries UK, Canada and NZ on union membership rates, Australia has considerably higher rates of bargaining coverage than any of these countries. In fact, our Kiwi cousins have coverage rates around one quarter of those we enjoy, putting them closer to the experience of US workers in a highly individualised environment.

Even for workers not covered by collective agreements, they still directly benefit from their broad acceptance. The ubiquitousness of such agreements has led to them becoming the de facto base rate across much of the workforce, rather than the relevant award. For example, nurses in medical clinics aren’t covered by an enterprise agreement, but a GP would struggle to employ a nurse by offering only modern award wages.

And with more than one million workers reliant on the ACTU negotiated minimum wage, the footprint of those with a stake in unions’ continuing strength is even bigger.

Generations of union action have led us to this point, and while successive Liberal governments have attempted to wind back worker’s collective gains in the quest to drag our system down to the US level, there is resilience in the Australian psyche that still recognises the need to stick together.

Whether you want to call it mateship or the fair go, the echoes of this attitude are clear to see in Essential Media research data, coincidentally released on the same day as the ABS report.

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Essential found strong and growing community support for unions, with a majority saying unions are important for working people. There’s similar support for the proposition that workers are better off when unions are strong.

The union movement’s many wins – going back to the eight hour day and through to sick leave, superannuation and recent innovations such as domestic violence leave - have become firmly imbedded in Australian’s basic expectations of fair working conditions.

It’s shocking for Australians to learn that US workers don’t have guaranteed access to paid sick leave or that in Canada workers typically receive just half the annual leave we do in this country.

So while raw membership numbers may fluctuate, the need for unions to play an effective, central role is now as strong as ever.

The ABS figures that started this conversation also reveal alarming details about the changing nature of work. They show part time, casual and similarly precarious working structures are on the rise – with a third of all workers now employed in such a situation.

There is a large and growing group of workers who are enjoying less and less of the basic, collectively bargained for conditions that others take for granted, and with the ongoing attacks on penalty pay rates, even what they do have is at risk of being taken away.

Essential also captures this unease in its results.

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While 62% of all voters saying unions are important for working people, looking just at responses for people who work part time, this figure jumps to 71%.

And as the seemingly unstoppable force of Uberfication takes hold throughout the economy, the fragmentation of workforces, along with the need for workers to stick together, only rises.

There have been many opinions expressed recently on the challenges that unions face at this time, but there needs to be more focus on opportunities.

The world is changing and with it the economy and workplaces are in almost constant flux. Underneath this movement and dynamism is a solid, shared reliance on a framework that has been collectively constructed by unions and workers over generations, but this structure can be secure without being rigid.

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Just as businesses must face up to the realities of the current economic climate, unions also recognise the imperative to innovate, to capitalise on the new opportunities opening up.

It’s clear that there’s work to be done in sections of the workforce who are yet to be effectively represented. Younger workers, women, freelancers, and those employed in the booming “knowledge economy” are great examples of groups for whom the union movement can offer so much more than we do now.

The 2015 ACTU Congress agreed that we must look at ways to achieve union growth, through changing methods in the workplace and alternate models of organising.

Next month union leaders will be gathering for the Australia Disrupted Symposium to discuss the future of work and how we can best represent workers no matter who they are or how they work.

Unions have achieved so much for workers today – now we must continue to work for their tomorrow.