TUC - picking up members

Union Survey

• Unions are waging campaigns against 61 employers, covering 76,500 workers

• The survey also reports trends among unions, including new benefits and services offered to new members

• Unions now offer stress counselling helplines, help with tax self- assessment, a free wills service and shopping vouchers to boost membership
• The average union subscription is now £1.99 a week, a 2.5% increase on a year ago

• Many unions offer reduced rates for part-timers, the low-paid and young workers

• Unions themselves employ 6,500 workers, unchanged from a year ago

• Unions spent £140,000 over the past six months defending legal action against them, sometimes from their own members

• One in five unions predict a rise in legal challenges from employers as well as union members who may be dissatisfied with the outcome of union-assisted tribunal cases

• Two out of three unions organised a ballot for industrial action over the past six months, slightly down on a year ago

• Pay was the most likely reason for a ballot

• Industrial action achieves results, the survey found, with all or some demands being won in four out of five cases

• The number of claims taken to industrial tribunals has doubled over the past year

• Unions won £4.2 million for their members through industrial tribunal cases in the past six months

• The average settlement in sex discrimination cases increased from £4,741 to £8,626

Related Sites

The Trade Union Congress