The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 8th August 2025
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 8th August 2025
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
TWO SETS of complementary official annual statis tics relating to British trade union membership were published recently. In May came Trade Union Membership, UK, 1995 to 2024: Statistical Bulletin from the Department of Business & Trade. This presented a depressing picture of trade unionism based on the Department’s Labour Force Survey of approximately 28,000 households (63,000 individuals) and revealed that once again the number of workers in unions had fallen, this time to a mere twenty-two per cent.
The second set of figures came out last month. This was the Certification Officer for Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations Annual Report for 2024-25. It is based on figure provided by the unions and this year’s showed a growth in the number of trade union members by 21.8 per cent from 5.5 million to 6.7 million. How ever, we should not get excited by this. The rise was simply due to Unite the Union finally getting its act together this year and managing to get most of its figures in on time (oddly missing was the salary of its General Secretary, a point members ought to be asking about). Apart from that the picture remains unencouraging.
There were 128 registered trade unions, the same as last year. Four vanished off the face of the earth: the Aircrew Officers Association, the Balfour Beatty Staff Association and the Leek Build
The Boots Pharmacists Association merged with the Pharmacists Defence Association. How the movement will cope with their loss remains to be seen. The TUC presently represents 48 unions, but accounts for the vast majority of trade unionists.
To replace them four new unions emerged: Two sound serious: the Independent Oxfam Union and the United Medical Associate Professionals Trade Union seem to fill a gap in the market. One suspects that the former arose from disappointment with Unite which has represented members in recent disputes and the latter is seeking to represent a new class of medics not entirely welcomed by the British Medical Association.
As for the other two, Libertas Union and Yourmate Union both claim to “represent workers in all industries” but only the latter has a functioning website and last made a Facebook posting more than a year ago. One wonders if the Certification Officer needs to do more than make sure unions actually undertake some proper union work before giving them the stamp of approval.
The Big Picture
First we examine the Trade Union Membership, UK, 1995 to 2024: Statistical Bulletin. These do not relate to particular industries or unions but supply information on a sector-by-sector basis. It shows that that in late 2024 there were 6.4 million trade unionists in the UK (300,000 less than those reported by trade unions). This means that only 22 per cent of the workforce are in unions. This is the lowest density ever recorded.
The high point of union membership, 13.2 million, was in 1979. The decline was rapid in the 1980s until the mid-1990s, largely due to the deindustrialisation. In 1996 when there were still 7.9 million card holders rep resenting 32.4 per cent of the workforce. From then on it has been a tale of steady decline, with only occasional isolated years of small, local ised and usually reversible growth.
Perhaps the most serious is the huge gap between the comparatively healthy pub lic sector with 49.9 per cent organised and the 11.7 per cent in the private sector. This urgently needs addressing, if unions are to have any continuing relevance. Two of the largest, Unite and GMB, are based in both sectors are best placed to do some head scratching and take action. While Unison has seen an influx of recruits in those councils now controlled by Reform UK.
The overall loss was caused by a fall in private sector membership of 57,000 to 2.5 million in 2024. Growth of 20,000 to 3.9 million in the public sector did not offset the overall decline. In the public sector female employee membership rose by 87,000 but male public sector membership declined by 67,000 in 2024.
Most of the figures make for bleak reading. Almost every bright spot has a bleak parallel. For instance, the point that 64 per cent of workers with degrees or other higher education qualifications are in unions only highlights the fact that far more workers without letters after their names are not organised.
This is confirmed by the proportions of employees in trade unions by weekly earnings. Only 7.7 per cent of those on low wages of £250 a week were in unions, 18.5 of those earning £250 to £499 were unionised, the peak was those on £500 to £900 where 27.1 were in unions, 19.9 of those lucky people on £1,000 and above every week per week, confirms the view that better off workers now form the bulk of the membership rather than those who founded the unions, often in the face of great adversity.
Longer serving workers were more inclined to trade unionism with 43 per cent being with their current employer for 10 years, but in contrast unionism shows signs of going out of fashion among the nation’s youth. Only 4.4 per cent of union members are aged between 16 and 24, 20.6 are between 25 and 34, with 37.3 between 35 to 49, while 37.7 were 50 or above.
The survey suggests that at least part of the private sector unionisation is down to privatisation. The high est proportions of unionised employees are in Education at 45.0 followed by Public Administration and Defence (excluding the armed forces, where unions are banned) on 42.3, Human Health and So cial Work at 36.5 and Transportation and Storage with 34.8 per cent. In these sectors many unions either had their origins as professional bodies or have dual functions.
Northern Ireland had the highest membership density with 34 per cent, with Wales slightly behind on 29.5 and Scotland on 27 with Eng land well behind on 20.6 as a whole. But last year England was the only area to experience growth.
Within England there is massive variation in unionisation. The gold medal goes to the North East on 25.6, the North West gets the silver for its 25.0. The booby prize went to London on 17.8. On a positive note the latest figures confirm that unions are good for workers. In 2024, the trade union wage gap increased by 0.7 percentage points to 4.9 per cent above the wages of non-members.
The Big Boys
Turning to the actual unions we discover that more than two thirds of trade unionists belong to just seven unions with at least 250,000 members each. Unison is the largest with 1,403,792, Unite is slightly behind with 1,177,292, GMB’s is a distant bronze with 576,463. Breathing down GMB’s neck in fourth place is the Royal College of Nursing (Patron HM the King). The main teaching union, the National Education Union, comes fifth with 487,420. The Union of Shop, Dstributive & Allied Workers claims 360,394. The sounds good until it is realised that the re tail sector employs 2.84 million people in the UK.
smallest
The National Associa tion of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers is the smallest of those over the 250,000 mark on 285,963. Those above 100,000 are in descending order, the British Medical Association with 191,105, the Public and Commercial Services union on 189,399, the Communication Workers Union with 170,324, Prospect 156,904 and finally the University and College Union with 119,785. The other 111 unions account for 1,030,675 with eight of these having a grand total of 343 members among them.
Among the smaller un ions the once mighty Nation al Union of Mineworkers now only has 191 members. That Community, whose main component is the former Iron and Steel Trades Confederation and textile industry unions, only has 43,586 members tells its own story of deindustrialisation.
It is also delightful to learn of the existence of the 117 strong Palm Paper Staff Association which claims a membership density of 56 per cent at the King’s Lynn newsprint plant. No doubt the TUC will be anxious to recruit them as they are comparatively successful by private sector standards. Less delightful is the continued existence of “Solidarity: the Union of British Workers” whose General Secretary is Patrick Harrington, a major figure in the National Front in the 1980s.
Not everyone is convinced he has changed is spots, despite the website being headed by stock photographs including a hajib clad woman. As it has only 206 members and only offers support at disciplinary and Employment Tribunal hearings it is not worth too much about. The statisticians have interpreted the figures in many ways. The point, however is to drastically improve them.