Union density has dropped significantly from 14.3% to 12.5% over the past two years and almost 10 percentage points a decade for the past 30 years, according to ABS data released today.
The FWC has given the CFMMEU's legal team access to the mining and energy division's membership roll ahead of a hearing into its demerger bid, after the amalgamated union argued it owns the division's records and rejected suggestions its in-house lawyers might misuse the information.
Incoming CFMMEU construction and general division national secretary Zachary (Zach) Smith will take over from the long-serving Dave Noonan in April, after 15 years with the union and serving as leader and assistant leader of the ACT branch for the past three years.
The CFMMEU has foreshadowed jurisdictional challenges to the applications by two of its divisions to demerge and operate as separate standalone unions, in a sign of lengthy legal proceedings to come.
Ai Group head of national workplace relations policy Stephen Smith is moving on after more than 30 years with the employer group, while NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association general secretary Brett Holmes is retiring after two decades in the branch's top job.
The Albanese Government is continuing to add to its IR expertise, with the the appointment to the PM's office of long-serving CFMMEU mining and energy division national legal officer Alex Bukarica as a senior advisor.
The CFMMEU construction and general division's NSW branch has defended its decision to lift a green ban on historic buildings in Parramatta that had been slated for demolition under controversial plans to shift the Powerhouse Museum from inner-city Ultimo.
An FWC full bench has upheld an AFAP rule change decision that will enable it to compete with AIPA to represent all Qantas mainline pilots, finding the competition will keep the Flying Kangaroo's "in-house" union "on their toes and honest".
In the wake of the hasty passage of legislation six months ago to enable the CFMMEU's mining division to go its own way, the Attorney-General's Department says that eligible constituent parts of unions and other registered organisations can apply to demerge if they have amalgamated since early 1991.
The MUA has created a new non-voting "supporter" membership category that will seek to enrol community members and capitalise on the the substantial support it has built through its long history of campaigning on a wide range of political and social change movements.
