Union membership falls more slowly in 1999

According to figures published in summer 2000, 1999 saw a continuation of the downward trend in Austrian trade union membership, which began in the mid-1980s. However, the decline is decelerating and the ÖGB union confederation is launching a new recruitment campaign in autumn 2000.

At the end of 1999, according to statistics from the Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB), the total membership of its affiliated trade unions was 1,465,164, comprising 566,789 private sector blue-collar workers, 310,588 private sector white-collar workers and 587,817 public servants (see table 1 below). This represents an overall decline of around 15,000 members or 1% on the end of 1998. This drop in membership was lower than the 18,000 (1.2%) fall from 1997 to 1998 (AT9907158N), the 37,000 (2.4%) fall from 1996 to 1997 and 48,000 (3%) fall from 1995 to 1996.

In 1999, the decline in membership was largest in blue-collar workers' unions, which lost nearly 2% of their members, followed by white-collar private sector unions at 1.2%. Membership in public sector unions remained nearly unchanged. This trend corresponds to that of previous years.

In terms of shares in total union membership, the union representing white-collar workers in the private sector, the Union of Salaried Employees (Gewerkschaft der Privatangestellten, GPA), has been the major beneficiary of long-term developments. This is due to changes in the employment structure, namely the relative decline of manufacturing and the expansion of the private services sector, whose white-collar employees fall within GPA's domain. This development had already made GPA the largest member union of ÖGB in the 1970s. However, GPA has also been hit by declining absolute membership figures for some time. In response to this development and the ongoing restructuring of the services sector, GPA recently introduced a far-reaching reform of its organisation (AT0008277F), aimed at a more flexible structure. The fact that even GPA, whose recruitment area including expanding sectors, has recorded shrinking membership figures in the long run underscores that the changes in employment structure have generally worked in a way which is unfavourable for the unions. While employment in the strongholds of unionisation (ie blue-collar workers and manufacturing) has dwindled, sectors and employment groups (such as the private services sector, white-collar employees and women) where unions find it hard to recruit have grown. It is estimated that these structural changes in employment accounted for some two-thirds of the decline in (net) union density from around 58% in 1970 to around 43% in 1995.