In 2008 workSite celebrates its twentieth birthday by reflecting on the challenges facing Australian workplaces today with a series of articles and a conference on the theme Unions After WorkChoices. See details.

WOS Research

Harry Knowles argues that understanding history is an important part of business studies and the craft of management. Read

Rhoda Stuart, freethinker, socialist and accomplished singer, just one of 2,000 entries in the biographical register of the Australian labour movement.

Working Lives promotes innovative research into the role of the individual in labour and social history.

Working Lives draws together contributors examining a range of labour biography subjects and methodologies, including: labour history and narrative identity, trade union leadership, labour intellectuals, studies of the justices of the NSW Industrial Commission and a progress report on the Biographical Register of the Australian Labour Movement – which includes entries on 2,000 labour activists.

Greg Patmore believes that the significance of this new study of Labor's early years has been highlighted by the recent clash between the ALP Annual Conference and the Iemma Government over the issue of electricity privatisation. Read

The Rudd government will do nothing to enforce collective bargaining in its new workplace relations reforms, according to Julia Gillard, the Minister for Workplace Relations. Read

In a global economy where multinational companies operate across borders, Harry Knowles reports that unions are developing global strategies to better represent their members. Read

Mark Hearn argues that Kevin Rudd is cultivating two workplace nations, extending a trend towards postmodernity evident before the election of the the Howard government. Read

Obituaries celebrating the life of former Hawke Labor Government minister John Button have focused on his role in industry reform and modernising the Labor Party. Less observed was Button's sharp analysis of the failure of Australia's trade unions to adapt to new circumstances. Read

Michael Hogan argues that the fundamental skill of liberal democratic politics - a willingness to make compromises and accept second best for the sake of achieving genuine reforms - was systematically rejected by the "basket weavers and true believers" discussed in Tony Harris' book. Read

According to Professor John Lund, union density in the United States has continued an overall fifty-year decline, from a high-water mark of nearly 35% in the mid-1950s to approximately 12% today; what is arresting an even steeper decline is public sector density, but even that too is starting to moderate. Read

Sharma Wiblen looks at why Barbara Pocock's book The Labour Market Ate My Babies. Work, children and a sustainable future fills a void by examining the impact of parental work on the lives of young adults. Read

Mark Hearn and Grant Michelson introduce the themes of Rethinking Work and their relationship to the world of WorkChoices. Read

Harry Knowles examines what is happening to workers and trade unions around the world, PLUS International Industrial relations stories. Read

Michael Crosby's provocative call for revitalising Australia's unions raises some difficult - and unresolved - issues. Read

Greg Mallory mounts a powerful argument for the adoption of social responsibility as a trade union role. Read

This book not only exposes the shortcomings of existing OHS legislation but also provides suggestions and examples for how to address these shortcomings.Read

Having just visited the United States, Troy Sarina argues that the ramifications of pursuing an individual system of regulating work were clearly visible. Read