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David Peetz, Unions in a Contrary World: The Future of the Australian Trade Union Movement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, in association with the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, 1998), 243 pp., $34.95, ISBN 0 521 63950 6 (pbk).
This book is one of a series arising out of the Reshaping Australian Institutions project run by the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. It focuses on one of the most dramatic changes in Australian institutions over the past two decades-the fall in union density from a little over 50% in the mid-1970s to around 30% by the mid-1970s to around 30% by the mid-1990s. Clearly, this is an issue worthy of detailed analysis-and this the book provides amply. Peetz draws on a selection of recent survey and other data as well as a wide range of Australian and international literature to provide a tightly argued and comprehensive analysis.
One of the main strengths of the book is...