Union power in retail: Contrasting cases in Australia and New Zealand

Retail employees are the prototypical vulnerable, low-paid employees and, for that reason, unionism and its benefits, such as collective bargaining, provide important social protection. However, the reasons that make employees vulnerable also reduce union power, though that is not to say that retail unions lack agency. This article analyses the power resources and their deployment in the respective retail unions in Australia and New Zealand (NZ). The two unions’ strategies are quite different, and provide interesting contrasts in approaches and ideology. The implications for theory are that ideology matters, with respect to union strategy (and should be attended to more thoroughly in studies of union renewal), and – as others have also argued – the wider institutional context has a very significant influence on outcomes for unions and their members. The implication for practice, therefore, is that both workplace and extra-workplace strategies in the political and other arenas remain central for the low-paid.