Johanna Tran, national president, Finance Sector Union
The Finance Sector Union has reduced full-time elected positions and cut executive councils, as it adjusts to the loss of 20 per cent of its members over the past five years.
The union had 64,768 members in 2001. Membership fell to 31,680 in 2016 and 24,944 last year.
Earlier this year, the Fair Work Commission approved changes to the union’s rules that paved the way for the new structure.
The FWC rejected an application from the union’s New South Wales local executive secretary objecting to the changes.
Under the changes, the union’s executive has been reduced from seven (national secretary, assistant national secretary, four local executive secretaries and Commonwealth Bank section secretary) to three (national secretary, assistant secretary and president).
It dissolves the national executive council, local executive councils, local executives (branch secretaries), national management committee and a number of elected offices.
The new structure also reduces the autonomy of the union’s Reserve Bank and CBA sections, which before the change could employ staff and deploy resources to represent the interests of their sections.