Trade union membership falls yet again

Source: Labour Market Trends, June 1997

The 1996 Labour Force Survey data highlight a number of individual and industrial characteristics associated with union density.

Individual characteristics

• Age. Likelihood of union membership increases as age increases. Important here is the fact that only 6% of employees under the age of 20 are union members.

• Ethnic group. Density among white people (31%) is higher than the combined non-white ethnic minority group (29%), but the black group has the largest overall density (36%). Also, non-white women are more likely to be members than white women.

• Qualifications. Employees with any type of further education are considerably more likely to be union members than those without any kind of post-school training or education. Those with higher education levels above A-level but below degree level have the highest density. Women with higher education levels or degrees have much higher densities than men. The density of male union membership varies very little with education levels.

• Marital status. Married men and women have the highest densities of all social groupings.

Industrial characteristics

• Where an industry is present in both the private and public sectors, density is much higher in the public sector.

• Hotels and agriculture have the lowest union densities while public administration and the electricity, gas and water industries have the highest.

A typical feature of British employment is that there are higher levels of union density among full-time workers than among part timers. These are sustained over all job characteristics, including length of service, occupational group, managerial status, employment status and working arrangements. This indicates the great difficulties trade unions have in recruiting in these areas.

Trade union responses

The decline in membership is also confirmed by the membership figures produced by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which in January 1997 stood at just over 6.7. million, a drop of 1.2% since the previous year. The TUC says that there have been major changes in the workplace, with many jobs being part time and in those sectors most difficult to organise. The fact that the decline is slowing, as unions are beginning to face up to the challenge and focus their resources more strongly on the need to recruit, is an indication that they must be starting to do something right, according to the TUC.

At a Confederation of British Industry dinner in July, John Monks, the general secretary of the TUC, said that unions must also be ready to deal with business if they wish to gain workplace recognition and boost their membership. In order to do this, he said that unions must abide by four pledges in relation to the Labour Government's forthcoming proposals on statutory union recognition (UK9704125F):

• recognition proposals must be simple and based on the voluntary tradition of British industrial relations;

• statutory recognition must not give rise to disputes between unions over members;

• the definition of "relevant workforce" has to be made clear; and

• the idea of punitive sanctions against employers must be rejected.

Brendan Barber, the TUC deputy general secretary, said that: "The climate for trade unionism is changing for the better. A fairer legal system - including the right to union recognition where the majority of workers make that free choice - will make a difference. But the work of rebuilding trade union membership is ours and ours alone and we need to mobilise the drive and energy of our young people." To do just that, the TUC has launched a "New Unionism" project to train a team of young dedicated organisers to help affiliated unions with any recruitment problems or campaigns they wish to undertake.

Despite the fact that union representation is at its lowest level since the 1930s, the unions feel that they can still do something to attract some of the 16 million workers who do not belong to a union. The TUC cites the example of the recently affiliated Independent Union of Halifax Staff (organising employees at the Halifax Building Society), which increased its membership by 27.8% (5,500 new members) due to a novel one-day recruitment drive.

The Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), Britain's biggest union in industry and the private sector, also announced in July that it is to spend GBP 2 million in a major recruitment drive, stating that "our strength for growth will concentrate even more resources on recruiting and servicing members." The amount represents 3% of TGWU income, or GBP 0.05 per member per week, and the union stated that every penny will be targeted and focused. The TGWU covers manufacturing, transport, construction, and the service sector.

Commentary

The unions clearly have an uphill battle to recover the rates of membership of the late 1980s, let alone those witnessed in the late 1970s. It is clear that certain categories of worker - young, part-time, female, working in the service industries - are those which the unions need to attract, but these are precisely those who are the most difficult to organise traditionally. But the TUC feels that the time is right and that the unions have already been making up some ground. However, the Department for Education and Employment believes that the contraction in membership is not entirely explained by structural changes in the labour market. Nor can it be blamed on aggressive employers: the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service annual report for 1996 reveals that there were only three cases of union derecognition, while unions gained full recognition at 38 companies and partial recognition at another 28.

The unions clearly face ideological as well as structural barriers. A lot of hope, for the TUC, seems to be pinned to the fact that the unions may be able to improve their position on both of these grounds through the coming legislation on union recognition in the workplace. Yet the unions might need to be a lot more original than previously, since recognition is likely to be most difficult to achieve in those areas where recruitment is also difficult. (MW Gilman, IRRU)