Facts About Trade Unions

Trade unions, also called labour unions, originated in the 19th century and became synonymous with the labour movement in Britain, Europe, and the United States. The unions began to appear under calls for trade, industry or company workers to receive better working conditions, pay and job security. In addition, they leveraged associations of workers to negotiate collective demands on behalf of workers. 

As a result, unions have made great strides in securing social and political status over the years despite various legal and statutory regulations.

Modern trade union membership can offer powerful campaigns and lobby for members. Although they have grown substantially and have become large organisations, they also provide support at the individual level. In addition, trade union membership can address difficulties in the workplace, such as harassment, redundancy, and unfair dismissal.

In this article, we’ll be taking a look at modern trade unions and some interesting facts about members:

Facts

Every year the UK government provides national statistics on the labour market. So let’s take a deep dive into what these statistics can tell us about modern union members.

 How many members are there in the UK?

The number of trade union members rose to 6.56 million members in 2020, which is the fourth consecutive year of membership growth. There was an increase in public sector workers by 228,000, but a significant fall in private-sector employees fell by 110,000. In total, the number of union members in the UK rose by 23.7% from the previous year.

Who makes up the members?

Although the proportion of male employees who were union members rose slightly this year (0.1%), women continue to dominate in trade union membership, with more than half (3.76 million in 2020.) of all members being women. A figure which has continued to rise since the 90s.

In terms of age, around three quarters (75%) of trade union members employees were aged 35 or over.

The statistics also showed that the highest proportion of union members were from the Black or Black British ethnic group (26.9%), followed by the Mixed ethnic group (24.1%) and the White ethnic group (24.0%). Whereas, trade union membership was lowest amongst the Asian or Asian British and Chinese and Other ethnic group employees, at 19.1% and 17.9% respectively. 

Furthermore, statistics identified that with the growth of trade representation for Human Health and Social Work, Education or Public Administration and Defence industries, trade members with higher education qualifications had also grown by 27.9% since the 90s.

What is the pay like for union members?

Members who worked for larger organizations (with 50 or more staff) were more likely to have a union presence in their workplace. Those within the union had their pay negotiated by a collective agreement between their employer and the trade union. As a result, on average, union members earned 4.1% more than the average worker in the UK.

As these facts demonstrate, the diversity and identity of trade union members continue to grow, making unions more and more appealing to many different types of workers. Moreover, with legal, financial and educational support, trade unions provide a better working environment for everyone.

If you are interested in learning more about a trade union membership, you can look at what our community offers.