We Are Independent: The Role of Employers in the Formation of New Unions Under the Employment Relations Act 2000

Abstract

This paper reports on the, formation of new, predominantly workplace based unions or New Unions under the Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA). Specifically it questions whether employers actively support and facilitate the formation of New Unions and whether they represent an independent form of employee representation. To date scholars have argued that employers play a significant, if not dominant role in New Union formation that limits their ability to act independently. Some have questioned their status as genuine unions, and implied that many represent a form of de-collectivist strategy that deliberately seeks to undermine more genuine union organisations, through the formation of tame or company unions. This paper argues that New Union formation is an employee driven phenomenon, and that little evidence of employers deliberately precipitating, or dominating, the formation process can be found. New Unions operate independently of employers whose involvement is more likely to reflect an acceptance of workers' legal right to organise collectively, established by the ERA, not a deliberate attempt to undermine existing unions.