Union membership steadies after 18 years' decline

The decline in trade union membership has been halted, according to a TUC analysis of figures from the autumn 1998 Labour Force Survey, published in May 1999. A growth in membership among women, part-time and Asian workers offset continued losses in more traditional areas of union strength.

Membership of trade unions in Britain (ie excluding Northern Ireland) has stopped falling for the first time in 18 years, according to a new report published in May 1999 by the Trades Union Congress (TUC). The report, based on statistics from the official Labour Force Survey carried out in the autumn of 1998, shows that 6.8 million employees belong to trade unions, representing 30% of all employees. This figure is effectively unchanged from the previous year. The TUC attaches considerable significance to the growth in membership amongst key groups of workers such as women, part-time and Pakistani and Bangladeshi employees, and those in low-membership occupations such as sales. However, membership has continued to fall in sectors such as manufacturing where levels of unionisation have traditionally been high.

The report finds that:

• union density within the public sector is 60%, compared with only 19% in the private sector;

• union membership is highest among those in professional and associate professional occupations (49% and 44% respectively), followed by plant and machine operatives (38%) and craft workers (32%);

• 46% of all trade unionists are women. However, women in full-time jobs are more likely to be union members than men in full-time jobs (34% compared with 32%) reflecting the fact that women are more likely to work in the highly-unionised public sector;

• union membership increases with age - 19% of employees in their 20s are union members compared with 38% of those in their 40s;

• union members are more likely to work in larger workplaces - 37% of employees in workplaces with more than 25 employees are union members, compared with 15% in workplaces with fewer than 25 employees; and

• there are significant regional disparities in the rate of unionisation, ranging from 41% in Wales and 40% in the North East to as low as 22% in the South East and 23% in the Eastern region.

The TUC and individual unions have placed a major emphasis in recent years on improving their organising and recruitment strategies (UK9903187F) - work which the TUC says is now "starting to pay off". The statutory trade union recognition provisions contained in the current Employment Relations Bill are also expected to provide a platform for union growth (UK9903189F). However, the TUC warns that "unions must not be complacent - in almost half of the UK's workplaces there are still no union members. If we are serious about increasing union membership we must become experts in recruitment and retention, we must make ourselves attractive to new recruits in the workplace and we must be respected by both employers and employees."

Trade and industry minister Ian McCartney commented: "It is encouraging that for the first time in 18 years the decline in union membership has been slightly arrested. However, the challenge now is to build on that. The union movement needs to reflect the needs of a diverse workforce in order to remain relevant." He said that the adoption of a "partnership" approach to industrial relations would help unions "not just survive, but thrive in the next century".