Trade unions launch new membership recruitment drive

Five major trade unions are preparing to fund a new ‘outreach’ union recruitment drive being launched by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), in an effort to stem the decline in trade union density, particularly in the private sector. The service will comprise information and advisory support and will target key groups, including migrant workers, through a variety of media.

A new ‘union outreach service’ was due to be formally launched at the biennial conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), held in Bundoran, Co. Donegal, on 2 July 2007. News of the new service was broken in an exclusive report in the independent weekly industrial relations journal, Industrial Relations News (IRN).

The five trade unions involved in the initiative to date are the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU), the Irish Municipal Public and Civil Trade Union (IMPACT), the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU), the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) and Mandate, the union representing bar, retail and administrative workers.

Details of outreach service

The five unions are expected to invest a total of €250,000 at the outset, and the new organisation will be owned by the five unions concerned and ICTU.

The service will initially target two key areas – namely, the counties of Cork and Waterford – where trade unions are already firmly established. The aim will be to complement the existing recruitment strategies of individual unions, by providing a service which appeals to workers in companies with no trade union presence, or to workers who may be unaware of a trade union presence within the company for which they work. The estimated membership fee per individual will be around €100 a year.

The service will comprise information and advisory support in the form of online, written and personal responses. Services will be tailored to meet the needs of key target groups, including migrant workers. Potential recruits will be targeted in a variety of ways, including through direct response TV and radio advertisements, dedicated online internet access, press advertisements and mailing.

The initial budget is costed on the basis of an extra 10,000 members in phase one of the operation, which is expected to employ a number of direct employees, although aspects of the service could be outsourced. A High Level Advice Centre, staffed by people with industrial relations expertise, will handle queries and avail of a new Employment Conditions Research Unit to deal with such queries.

Trade union density problem

The scheme was first mooted two years ago when the then incoming ICTU President, Peter McLoone, suggested that trade unions should consider making their strike and contingency funds available for recruitment drives. His suggestion was seen as an attempt to ‘jolt’ unions into the seriousness of their long-term recruitment problem.

While trade union membership has been rising due to the phenomenal growth in employment over the past decade or more, density levels have continued to decline. Membership of ICTU-affiliated unions in the Republic of Ireland has risen to 602,644 members in 2007, representing an increase of 16,759 members compared with the 2006 figures, or a growth rate of 2.9%. When non-ICTU members are added to this total, the membership figure rises to 628,000 members.

ICTU contends that, based on the 1,728,000 employees in the country (as distinct from the total number of people employed), the trade union density level in the Republic of Ireland is 36%, which represents a ‘significant decline in density from the level it was at three years ago of 39%’. ICTU further estimates that the private sector density figure stands at just 26%.

Reasons for decline

A wide variety of factors have contributed to this attrition rate, ranging from the change of employment to retirement. With an overall annual attrition rate of 8%, ICTU suggests that the annual replacement requirement stands at about 50,000 members. A further 27,000 members are required to stop the decline in density, making a total minimum annual requirement of around 77,000 members.

The reasons given by ICTU for the declining trade union density vary and include: the fact that most new jobs since the outset of the economic boom have been in services (85% of workplaces employ less than 10 people); that more people are working part time; the decline in manufacturing and the privatisation of some areas of the public sector; better educated workers ‘who are more confident in representing themselves directly’; a ‘union neutral’ government policy and; an increasingly hostile environment towards union organisation.

Brian Sheehan, IRN Publishing